Trust Issues

Genesis 3:6-10

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  ¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid. ¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

_________________

I know what you’re thinking…Adam and Eve…naked.  We’ve all heard this story before.  Why do we need to know about how they sinned one more time.  Yeah, that’s probably true, everybody knows that they messed up and then got kicked out of the garden, yada, yada, ya…They weren’t smart, they were manipulated by the serpent, yada, yada, ya…Heard the story a million times.  We really have…But I didn’t come for that today.  I wanted to talk to everyone about the root of our issues.  Our trust issues.

If you take this scripture and break it down a bit, you can probably see your own issues with trust all through this.  Questions come to mind, like:  Why don’t people tell the truth?  Why weren’t they just honest when they asked?  And when I mean honest, I mean fully honest…When God asked Adam, where he was, He covered up and hid…He placed fig leaves on himself and Eve because He had eaten from the tree of knowledge.  He knew that he didn’t have any clothes on.  More importantly he knew that he had gone against the very thing that God told him not to do.  He had shunned his responsibility to his Creator.  Why is that a big deal?  So glad you asked…It’s a big deal because if someone created you, they’ve already seen what you got, so why all of the sudden are you ashamed and feel the need to lie or say otherwise (as if they don’t already know)?  There, my friends lies the question…

Insecurity…it is defined as the uncertainty or anxiety about oneself; lack of confidence.  It is also defined as the state of being open to danger or threat; or a lack of protection.   Maybe, just maybe, that’s what Adam and Eve felt when they ate of the fruit:  Unprotected.  Vulnerable.  That’s unfortunate, because it begs the question:  Why would a God who created you to shine, leave you out there without protection?  Doesn’t make sense right?  That’s how we think though.  Our insecurity in different situations most likely come from the fear of being exposed.  Unprotected.  It happens I guess, but that’s probably some of the reason why we get into our various life situations.  We at some point stopped trusting that God would keep us.  That He would guide us through the storm.  That we could do anything as long as He was with us.  And make no mistake, He’s always with us.

Too deep for you…

Let me bring it to something so tangible.  Have you ever been in a situation with your spouse or significant other where you had something you needed to tell them?  Something you messed up on, or weren’t quite comfortable with?  And when faced with the adversity of the consequences, you folded?  You lied?  Or, you just weren’t completely honest?  You’ve exclaimed and proclaimed how much you trusted them; how great they are; how much you honor them; and when it comes to crunch time, you just don’t speak.  You decide that protecting yourself is more important than being completely honest.   What happened to that trust you so proudly displayed?  What happened to the “I don’t think there’s anything we can’t work through?”  I’ll tell you what happened.  You decided to throw that away the moment you allowed your insecurity to get the better of you.   Y0u allowed the serpent to get into your head, and take you away from what you knew the truth to be.  It’s not that the person you had to tell wouldn’t be upset or angry.  It’s not that there wouldn’t be consequences.  You just didn’t trust that you could make it past those consequences. That right there…is the shame of it all.

Sounds simple right?  It is.  When you are honest with someone, it’s saying that you trust them.  Not with part of yourself, but with your full self.  You are saying that you will give them you, all of you.  Even the parts, that you’re not so sure they will accept or be completely comfortable with.  A lot of times, they’ve already seen you “naked”, and they are still around.  So what’s the point in not being honest?  Exactly…there isn’t.  It sounds so silly to not be real, when you actually take time to think about things.  It’s something I know I have personally had issues with in my life.  I always claim to be giving my self, and then at the moment when I should just say what’s up, I crawl back into the cave of holding back.  I’ve held back far too long.  Even with the people I Love, because I was worried about acceptance.  Here’s the question though:  If someone you “Love” can’t accept you, even with your faults, then the question is, Do they really Love you?  I’ll let you decide what that answer is…

Listen, life is not easy.  It’s full of decisions that have to be made everyday.  Some you’ll get right, and others…well…those are the others…The thing is, the best way to learn to live with things, is well…honesty.  It is trust…You have to learn how to trust yourself, and more importantly God, that what He created is wonderful, and great, and worth being around.  Worth having.   So what’s the moral of this Aesop fable?  Trust Yourself…You’re more than enough…You’re worthy, because God made you that way!!!

More to come…

 

 

 

 

So you’re an Atheist…So What!!?

The other day, I was getting ready for bed, when a commercial came on.  The commercial was for a site called Godlessgroup.org (I know right!!).  That’s really a site, I know.  I almost couldn’t believe it, so I just had to explore it.  When going to the site, it actually redirects to a site called theseculardirectory.org (I know again…a site like this actually exist).  At first glance, I thought to myself, you can’t be serious.  Why in the world would someone put a site out there like this.  And then upon looking at it again, I figured that I shouldn’t be so judgmental.  It’s just a website/support group for people who don’t believe in a “higher power” or God. I said to myself there are a lot of people that don’t believe and if they don’t that’s ultimately their prerogative.

While that’s true, I did think that it was a little much to put it out there as if it really meant something.  You’d be surprised though, it’s almost as if it’s some type of support group.  At first glance I saw a bunch of white folks in pictures, and then I saw a picture with one black guy.  I tried to play it off as if he was Hispanic or Asian or something like that, but nope…it was a black guy.  Then I actually found a site called ebonyexodus.com, and realized that there are actually a lot of black people that don’t believe, and truth be told, that was a bit surprising.  Either way though, if it’s a support site, for people who want or need it, then that’s just what it is.

As a black man, I can tell you that religion is deeply rooted in black culture.  I mean it goes as far back as slavery times and forward.  Even before in Africa, blacks have always been known to have some type of religion. Just a bit of history for those that wanna know.  Let me make sure that I state that I do believe in God, and this blog isn’t about me defending what I believe.  I honestly feel that what I believe speaks for itself in my daily life.  That’s just what it is.  I do, however, want to speak to those who are atheist.  Those who claim to believe in nothing.  Those that believe that there is nothing but us, who determines what happens in our lives.  I could get into an argument about it, but truth to be told, what you believe is what you believe.  While I do believe that we have free will to do and think what we please.  I do believe that God is that deity that is out there watching over us, and protecting us from harm, guiding our paths, and giving us a source of strength to get through the hardships of life.  Some might say my favorite thing, “why would a God allow babies to be raped and killed and wars to happen??…”  I think that anyone can find justification in their own version of faith, if they try hard enough, but in my opinion, there are a lot of things that are supposed to remain unexplained.  The man that has all the answers has nothing to aspire to…I’ll leave it at that.

So here goes…to my atheists out there…You’re an Atheist…So What!!!??  You want a cookie!!??  I’m a Christian…So What!!? (Don’t get mad at me saints…)  I just mean that ultimately we believe in something different when it’s all said and done.  We basically disagree on what happens after we die.  I believe I’m going to heaven, and that there is a such thing as hell, and atheist believe that after life, that’s it.  And that’s fine for them.  Nobody cares that you’re an atheist, but atheist sure care about me believing in God it seems.  And this is my one issue with the atheist belief system:  Atheists seem to go out of their way to prove that there’s nothing there and make fun of Christianity.  The truth is, you are almost as religious, if not more than most “super-Christians”.  Billy Graham doesn’t have the conviction that atheists have.  And to be truthful that’s fine.  I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on the subject.  And I’m honestly perfectly okay with that as evangelism was never my strong suit.  I do believe that’s it’s funny how the people who don’t believe are always out to disprove what so many people around the world believe.  Also trying to say that things that were actually taken into account historically, aren’t true. Just like you’d say to us, “Were you there?”  The answer is no, you weren’t…well…unless, you have a star-ship named Enterprise that can travel around the sun, and go back in time, but I don’t think they’d take kindly to a big spaceship back then (Yes I’m a Trekkie)

Overall, when it comes down to it.  We’re just people, and we all have something that we believe strongly within ourselves.  And most of us should be okay with that.  I believe and love the Lord…you don’t.  Some believe in Buddha, or Isis, or Zeus, that’s just the way it is.  I’m not here to tell you that you should think what I think, or deal with issues of life the way I do.  Bottom line:  we shouldn’t judge someone off of what they believe when ultimately, when we get to know them, we’ll have plenty of other things to be judgmental about.  I’m just sayin…Let’s just take a second to get along, and make the world better.  It will all come out in the wash…trust me, when we die, we’ll have all the time in the world to figure out the answers.

More to come…