On Wednesday my son’s team, U17 Elite West Volleyball Club defeated Puerto Rico’s Envoy VB Club for the US Jr. Olympics National Club Championship. The Puerto Rican team was bigger, could hit with great power and show and their team hadn’t lost in two years. They also beat us in pool play and were confident they would beat us in the final. We took them two straight. In fact they never really challenged us.
Parental pride aside the tournament playoffs were a study in strategy, momentum and flow. In the quarter, semi and finals we never allowed the others teams to get into the flow of their game and capitalize on their strengths. In the final we began with a few good blocks and then executed a game plan that kept the PR’s out of their rhythm. They could never really unleash their big hitters and ride an emotional wave to victory as they were accustomed to doing. Instead they rode an emotional wave of frustration to defeat. Our team executed the coaches’ game plan perfectly. We were not in awe of our opponents strengths; rather we focused on our strengths which exposed their weaknesses. At the end of the tournament the underdogs stood victorious while the favored defending champs were left wondering what went wrong.
Watching our team work play on the last day reminded me a great deal about the Christian life. All too often we become overwhelmed by the taunts of the enemy and get our eyes off of Jesus and listen to the lies of Evil one. As my friend Bob Ekblad points out in his book “Reading the Bible with the damned,” the serpent got Eve to take her eyes off of the truth of God and instead believed the lies the Serpent was feeding her.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 2:15-17
Look at the blessings:
§ They could eat all they wanted to from every tree except one.
§ If they disobeyed they would not be punished for eating but the consequence of eating was death. (Warning)
Then the serpent shows up to lie to Eve.
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ”4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. Genesis 3:1-6
The serpent begins by re-framing who God is for Eve and she lets him. Following the serpent’s lead Eve only partially corrects him when she says that they can eat the fruit of other trees but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they can’t even touch it. God didn’t say that. Adam didn’t correct the teaching either and both of their minds and hearts were distracted from the goodness of God (You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden) and onto the lies they couldn’t achieve. Adam and Eve lost momentum, played to their weaknesses and Satan’s strengths (deceit) and lost the match.
All too often we take our eyes off of Jesus and allow our focus to be stolen by half truths, lies and deception and we begin to believe the lies about God. As we spiral down and away from God we commits sins, we bite the apple and allow our shame to re-frame God as a God of judgment when in fact he is not judging us but our own behaviors are which separate us from God’s love.
After Adam and Eve’s act of self-absorption God didn’t punish them, he protected them by removing them from the garden, providing clothes for them to wear and outlining consequences that would help to push Adam and Eve back to God. Why did He do all this? He loves us. He loves you and invites you to focus on who he really is not who the serpent tries to get us to believe He is.
I’m camped out in Asuncion, Paraguay. I’ll write more from the Mennonite World Conference as I have a chance.
Entries (RSS)