V
viltglance007
Guest
You are dust
It is 7:30 AM your alarm clock rings with the sound that announces a brand new day. You open your eyes and realize that you are already late. Get out of your bed, take a shower, dress yourself suddenly you are in the car, driving to work, you have to pay your bills and it has not been an easy month. Your car broke down twice and you have to pay a couple of extra expenses you had not planned. You are wondering if you need to get a new job, but man you are so tired! You wonder in your mind about mom calling you yesterday. They have to run some tests on your father at the hospital and they can't find what is the reason for the strong headaches he has been suffering recently you are worried but you have no vacation until summer. Dad will have to wait.
And man! Life seems to be passing by so fast, you got home at the end of a busy day and there you are, alone again, ready to start the new monotony of life. But when you are alone, in the innermost parts of your heart. You ache so badly for something you don't know. You recognize that feeling but you don't know what that is. It feels like a hole in the middle of your heart. It's a thirst that can't be extinguished with anything. You try to silence it and the anesthesia works for a while. After its effect is gone- the pain is there again.
Does this describe your reality? On the contrary to what we should expect, it seems that the more we have the less we feel we have. As Carl Jung said it seems that "the central neurosis of our time is emptiness" emptiness is what we feel at the end of a busy day when there is nothing else to distract our hearts in our busy routine.
If we were to be honest, we would have to admit that inside our hearts a deep disappointment, meaninglessness and a void that can't be satisfied permeates our heart. But someone may say that this picture seems so gray. Surely there are nice people outside enjoying what we call "the good life". What about all those folks who seem to be having a great time? I don't know about other people, but the only thing I know is that I know for sure that there must be something else. Something that may remain, something independent from the circumstances, something that does not change with the seasons of life, something firm and secure, something meaningful. And suddenly we are immersed in our search for meaning.
Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher said once "All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions...Yet all men complain...A test which has gone on so long, without pause or change, really ought to convince us that we are incapable of attaining the good by our own efforts...this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite object."
That infinite object that Pascal mentions is God. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 we read that God said "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" and in 27 "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them male and female he created them". God made man and woman to share the image of God, which basically means that God gave them all the characteristics necessary to establish a personal relationship with him. God gave them a purpose and a reason to be. Their purpose was to live to enjoy God's goodness in a personal and intimate way. When God expresses his opinion about all that he had created he said: "it was very good" (v.31)
But wait a minute, if everything was so nice, what messed things up? Chapter two tells us that God placed man in a beautiful garden and that he commanded him to take care of it. The only limitation to his dominion was a tree in the middle of the garden called the tree of good and evil. As we know the story, the man and the woman decided to disobey God and something terrible happened. As they tasted the forbidden fruit a whole new world was unveiled before their eyes- the world of meaninglessness. Scripture says that they heard the voice of the Lord calling and he asked a question that must have pierced their hearts "where are you?" (Gen. 3:9) the answer of man was completely different to what had been before: " I heard your voice, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself"(3:10)
That was one something completely absurd for someone created in the image of God. Adam and Eve had been designed to enjoy fellowship with their Creator and now the very voice that was their delight the day before was now something that frightened them. Adam's answer reveals the profound damage that his disobedience brought to humanity. First God's presence produced fear and shame for their sin and then the result was to try to hide from the Creator. This disobedience brought its consequence. The consequence of man's sin is separation, in other words death. Death is the origin of meaninglessness. In Genesis 3:19 we have the judgment of God upon Adam and it is one of the saddest moments in the Bible. God said: "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return" and God drove them out of the garden.
Those words recorded there are the sentence that describes the absurdity of our lives. Man was faced with a reality separated from the reason for his existence. He was condemned to live a life separated from God. Our lives without God are not more than dust. All the work and fatigue of man to feed himself are just a reminder that one day he is going to experience death and that in that day he is going to return to dust. What was Adam thinking? Surely it was the darkest day of his life.
Outside the garden the life was not the same. The relationship with God had been broken and now everything that Adam and Eve did was an attempt to recover what they lost. Surely after they were driven out of the garden they could see far away the beautiful place they had lost and the sword of fire revolving everywhere to protect the place. Things would never be the same
However, God in his mercy decided to provide for the need of Adam and Eve. When they were ashamed for the nakedness of their sin, God graciously provided for them in an act of grace. In Genesis 3:21 it says "And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them" They didn't deserve to be clothed by God but God did that anyway, that is what the Bible calls grace. Maybe you are thinking: "that is ok but what in the world do I have to do with all that stuff?" Well, the emptiness you and I feel when we are alone is the same that Adam and Eve felt when they were driven out of the garden. We long not for something but for Someone, that Someone is God.
God in his grace has provided a way to restore fellowship with him and he did it by sending his only Son Jesus. The Bible says that he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Jesus gave his life and rose from the dead to take away our sins, not only to cover our shame as God did with the garments but to take our sins away forever and bring us back to his presence. And all of this just because of God's love for us. God has the answer for your needs! Jesus once said, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as Scripture said 'from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37-38) God wants to give us everything, he wants to give us Himself as William Blake said "Less than everything cannot satisfy man". Would you be satisfied with something less than everything?
It is 7:30 AM your alarm clock rings with the sound that announces a brand new day. You open your eyes and realize that you are already late. Get out of your bed, take a shower, dress yourself suddenly you are in the car, driving to work, you have to pay your bills and it has not been an easy month. Your car broke down twice and you have to pay a couple of extra expenses you had not planned. You are wondering if you need to get a new job, but man you are so tired! You wonder in your mind about mom calling you yesterday. They have to run some tests on your father at the hospital and they can't find what is the reason for the strong headaches he has been suffering recently you are worried but you have no vacation until summer. Dad will have to wait.
And man! Life seems to be passing by so fast, you got home at the end of a busy day and there you are, alone again, ready to start the new monotony of life. But when you are alone, in the innermost parts of your heart. You ache so badly for something you don't know. You recognize that feeling but you don't know what that is. It feels like a hole in the middle of your heart. It's a thirst that can't be extinguished with anything. You try to silence it and the anesthesia works for a while. After its effect is gone- the pain is there again.
Does this describe your reality? On the contrary to what we should expect, it seems that the more we have the less we feel we have. As Carl Jung said it seems that "the central neurosis of our time is emptiness" emptiness is what we feel at the end of a busy day when there is nothing else to distract our hearts in our busy routine.
If we were to be honest, we would have to admit that inside our hearts a deep disappointment, meaninglessness and a void that can't be satisfied permeates our heart. But someone may say that this picture seems so gray. Surely there are nice people outside enjoying what we call "the good life". What about all those folks who seem to be having a great time? I don't know about other people, but the only thing I know is that I know for sure that there must be something else. Something that may remain, something independent from the circumstances, something that does not change with the seasons of life, something firm and secure, something meaningful. And suddenly we are immersed in our search for meaning.
Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher said once "All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions...Yet all men complain...A test which has gone on so long, without pause or change, really ought to convince us that we are incapable of attaining the good by our own efforts...this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite object."
That infinite object that Pascal mentions is God. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 we read that God said "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" and in 27 "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them male and female he created them". God made man and woman to share the image of God, which basically means that God gave them all the characteristics necessary to establish a personal relationship with him. God gave them a purpose and a reason to be. Their purpose was to live to enjoy God's goodness in a personal and intimate way. When God expresses his opinion about all that he had created he said: "it was very good" (v.31)
But wait a minute, if everything was so nice, what messed things up? Chapter two tells us that God placed man in a beautiful garden and that he commanded him to take care of it. The only limitation to his dominion was a tree in the middle of the garden called the tree of good and evil. As we know the story, the man and the woman decided to disobey God and something terrible happened. As they tasted the forbidden fruit a whole new world was unveiled before their eyes- the world of meaninglessness. Scripture says that they heard the voice of the Lord calling and he asked a question that must have pierced their hearts "where are you?" (Gen. 3:9) the answer of man was completely different to what had been before: " I heard your voice, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself"(3:10)
That was one something completely absurd for someone created in the image of God. Adam and Eve had been designed to enjoy fellowship with their Creator and now the very voice that was their delight the day before was now something that frightened them. Adam's answer reveals the profound damage that his disobedience brought to humanity. First God's presence produced fear and shame for their sin and then the result was to try to hide from the Creator. This disobedience brought its consequence. The consequence of man's sin is separation, in other words death. Death is the origin of meaninglessness. In Genesis 3:19 we have the judgment of God upon Adam and it is one of the saddest moments in the Bible. God said: "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return" and God drove them out of the garden.
Those words recorded there are the sentence that describes the absurdity of our lives. Man was faced with a reality separated from the reason for his existence. He was condemned to live a life separated from God. Our lives without God are not more than dust. All the work and fatigue of man to feed himself are just a reminder that one day he is going to experience death and that in that day he is going to return to dust. What was Adam thinking? Surely it was the darkest day of his life.
Outside the garden the life was not the same. The relationship with God had been broken and now everything that Adam and Eve did was an attempt to recover what they lost. Surely after they were driven out of the garden they could see far away the beautiful place they had lost and the sword of fire revolving everywhere to protect the place. Things would never be the same
However, God in his mercy decided to provide for the need of Adam and Eve. When they were ashamed for the nakedness of their sin, God graciously provided for them in an act of grace. In Genesis 3:21 it says "And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them" They didn't deserve to be clothed by God but God did that anyway, that is what the Bible calls grace. Maybe you are thinking: "that is ok but what in the world do I have to do with all that stuff?" Well, the emptiness you and I feel when we are alone is the same that Adam and Eve felt when they were driven out of the garden. We long not for something but for Someone, that Someone is God.
God in his grace has provided a way to restore fellowship with him and he did it by sending his only Son Jesus. The Bible says that he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Jesus gave his life and rose from the dead to take away our sins, not only to cover our shame as God did with the garments but to take our sins away forever and bring us back to his presence. And all of this just because of God's love for us. God has the answer for your needs! Jesus once said, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as Scripture said 'from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37-38) God wants to give us everything, he wants to give us Himself as William Blake said "Less than everything cannot satisfy man". Would you be satisfied with something less than everything?
