Thoughts on the Fall

I apologize for not updating my two followers on the goings on of my life and mind.

Also, this is not a juicy post about the cool shenanigans I do. Mainly, because I seldom do them.

However, I believe this blog was purposed to relate the highlights of my life and mind. This post concerns the latter.

I went to church today. I don't always encounter God most intimately through the message or the worship. Sometimes, while at peace in the pew/folding chair/bleacher, I simply have the opportunity to reflect upon things that I would say the Holy Spirit puts on my heart. My church today did the traditional "Lessons and Carols" service. Basically, it ties together things that are put in place from the Fall to Jesus' birth. For those of y'all who don't attend traditional services, it is basically a service that revolves around this book made by a brilliant man at the Austin Stone. After the reading from Gensis 3, my mind turned to the specifics of this event.

Much can be made of this famous passage. I focused on the fruit and what this says about humanity. Most well read people will readily point out that it was not necessarily an apple. The Bible only says, "a fruit." Of course, debating which fruit it was is bananas and will only leave you without any. (Fruitless. A bad wordplay. I wasn't sure how clear the pun was. Pretty clear on the low marks it will receive). Nonetheless, I find pondering the fruit interesting.

Despite us understanding that the fruit may not have been an apple, I believe we imagine the scene like it was. An apple or a pear are fruits that allows impulse. You needn't any preparation to eat it. Simply hold it and take a bite. When I read the passage, I always visualize Eve just acquiescing and instantly plunging her teeth into the forbidden fruit. Genesis indicates there was some sort of assessment before Eve took that bite. She saw that it was edible, attractive, desirable for wisdom. But to me, this seems like a conclusion that the human brain can arrive at rather quickly given the proper visual stimulus. So traditionally, the duration of the Fall consists of a piece of reptilian rhetoric, a cursory visual evaluation, and the fateful bite. Probably shorter than the realtime last two minutes of a contentious basketball game. But what if it weren't? What if it were a different fruit?

Perhaps a pineapple Joe Shields and Shawn Spencer both know that you can't just bite into a pineapple. You must cut it open to get to the fruit. How about a pomegranate? Eating one is a tedious task, breaking all the little pomegranate balls out of the rind. Or even worse, a coconut? I haven't done it myself, but I understand the the range of methods can require a hammer and nail, a heavy, blunt blade, or a healthy amount of some good-old violent smashing. In short, it's extends the timeline a bit. The result, of course, was the same, but it drastically changes the details of the sin.

Unfortunately, I am quite good at sinning. I have 20 years of experience. You might even say I'm a natural. (Pardon another bad joke) It is a multistep process. I'll give an example, using murder as the scenario hoping that no readers will struggle with compulsive killing, so I will trivialize that sin instead of ones that hit closer to heart for others (Pride, Anger, Gossip, Lust, Envy, what have you). Also, don't throw the "hate is murder" card at me. For the sake of simplification, we are dealing with stuff that you'd see in the opening minutes of a syndicated Jerry Bruckheimer show.

1. We see the opportunity (I could kill Becky—sorry to all Beckys out there). Hopefully, we are able to shut it down instantly.
2. However, sometimes, we toy with the temptation. Not giving in yet, but allowing the appeal to grow. We have thus far (as far as my knowledge goes. I am not the greatest with theology. Please forgive any inaccuracies) not sinned. Essentially, we start rationalizing it. (Killing Becky would help me. She does owe me lots of money. And she does always wake me up with her Nickelback music. That would mean one less Nickelback fan out there.)
3. We play out situations in our mind of committing the sin. (I know! I'll kill Becky like this...). Now the Matthew 5 card is in play. We have sinned in our heart.
4. Consummation. We actually kill Becky. Obvious note to readers: just because we already sinned at step 3 doesn't mean we should go ahead and physically do it. Consider murdering someone just because you already realized you hated them in your heart/having sex with someone just because you lusted after him/her and figuring you might as well do it because you already sinned. This is common sense, but just in case, see Romans 6.
   

Of course. In some of sins, our minds blow through steps 1-3, and sometimes 1-4, caught up in sin, our weak minds cave, leaving little room for turning back. Why is this post so long? You originally planned it to be about 3 paragraphs? Can we get back to the fruit? Oh, yes. Excuse me. I have rather beaten this fruit issue to a pulp. So basically, a time consuming fruit preparation would mean that there was a prolonged pause between steps 3 and 4. There was time to think about the humanity's first hideous act. More time to choose truth over the lie. A crime of passion becomes to some extent premeditated. Each blow to the coconut would bring us closer and closer to sin. Blinded by our lust for knowledge, power, approval, what have you. Our blackened heart muting the cries of our conscience. This could have been our original act of defiance. Whether or not the inaugural sin occurred in that manner, the same quasi-premeditated progression still plays out in hearts around the world. How sad the state of man. Either way apple or pineapple, the result is the same. We need redemption. We need a savior. O come, o come, Emmanuel. Joy to the World.

Toodles