The Problem with Human Nature

One of the things that I can say I benefit from in having children is seeing the reality of how early Sin manifests itself in our lives. Our children are perfect examples, since their lives are still lacking a lot of the complexity of psychology and neurosis that we adults would attribute to.

Take my son Liam, for example. Liam is about 9 months old. He's finally discovered how to crawl and explore his world. One of the things we are discovering about Liam is that nothing is off limits to his curiosity. This is particularly true when it comes to areas of the house that we would rather him not visit, such as the shoe rack (where he loves to put all of our shoes in his mouth, one at a time), under the computer desk (for obvious reasons), and near bandit's dog dish (again, for obvious reasons). These rules just don't seem to apply to him in his mind. But that's not really the point. Liam is 9 months old, and we don't expect him to yet grasp the concepts of bacteria, viruses, and the imminent dangers of electric shock.

The amazing thing is when we put a whole lot of toys in front of him, he still seems to show less interest in them (even new toys, at times) than in the "off limits" areas we have designated. This kind of reminds me of the Garden of Eden in Genesis Chapter 3. God gave Adam and Eve paradise. He gave them love and everything they could want. They had full reign to anything except one tree. I can't imagine what was appealing about the that tree that the other trees didn't have. There was even a tree of life, which God didn't leave off limits. However, they were drawn and then ate from the forbidden tree, despite all the other things that God had given them.

Now, let's look at Liam: This morning I went downstairs to our basement to bring up a whole bin of toys, the likes of which Liam had never seen before. Our hope is that these toys would be a good distraction to Liam from the forbidden areas of the house. While it seemed our plan had worked, it wasn't more than 10 minutes later that I found this:


Where was Liam? Why wasn't he playing within the "toy paradise" that we gave him? Because his little sinful heart would rather be here:


Our hearts are always drawn to disobey our authorities as well as our God. Even before sin, Adam and Eve did it. Why should we be any better off than they? We have the curse of sin. Even little Liam at 9 months has this. Thankfully, he has parents who know of a Savior who can rescue him from this problem. Oh, it won't make him sinless (at least not in this life), but at least he will know that God loved him enough to give him a cure for it.

We have a lot to learn about ourselves, and sometimes I think children are great reminders along the way.

Thank you, God for reminding me each day that I need You through my children, because I know that my sinful heart would like me to forget.

Thoughts from Clive Staples, Part 1

I've been reading a lot of books this summer over various topics of interest. The problem never seems to be, "Should I read this book?", rather, "Which book should I read now?". My issue is that I see 3 or 4 different books that I want to read and then get them all. I then strategically place them all over the house in various places where I might have some spare time to pick them up and read a few pages (yes, like the bathrooms). This becomes a problem because I now find myself reading only small portions from one book rather than large portions of a whole book. So I never get anything finished. Anyways, sorry for the rant.

I was reading The Screwtape Letters today when I came to this explanation of Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood concerning what he wants the human to believe humility is. I found this very convicting for myself and just wanted to share:

"You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character...By this method millions of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. An since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible." pgs 70-71

Ouch.

One of the best articles I've read in a while

I've just finished reading a very long, but very elightening article discussing the role of evangelical Protestantism in American culture. If you associate yourself in any way with Christianity, this article is a very very good read,

http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i42/42b00601.htm

PS: Please allot yourself about 10 minutes to read it as it is lenghty. Feel free to leave your comments on this blog, or e-mail me with what you think.