"Who told you you were naked?" - Genesis 3:11
At church last Sunday, Dr. Sebastian Holley was sharing from the front about this verse and how we have a burden and binding of our condition. In the garden in Genesis, Adam and Eve had each taken a bite of the apple. When they did this, they saw themselves in a new condition. The reality of their nakedness...and they became afraid and ashamed. Of course, in the garden, pre-apple-bite, they were walking with God. Naked, yet unashamed. And they were hanging out with God. Seems quite wonderfilled. Holley went on to share about how we are not here to meet God's "expectation," but instead meet his "Love." Again, wonderfilled.
So how often do we let our particular condition stand between us and Love?
Condition can be enjoyed and embraced or burdensome and undesired. But it is often invisible. And the things that contribute to our condition are many and varied.
We can see condition in terms of our health, our economic and social state of affairs, our upbringing, and the like. Things we can put effort toward to change for good or bad. And some things we can't influence or affect.
But it's those things invisible things I'd like to consider.
Let's go back to the garden.
Eve and Adam had an existence that they were unaware of...nakedness. They walked about with the animals, enjoyed the sunset, maybe farmed a bit, ate, and bathed in the stream. They were entrenched and nestled in the 'place of God.' The place of creation and Love.
But when we are entrenched and nestled in places that are not of creation and Love, we are an apple bite away from shame and fear. From seeing our nakedness.
When I look at much of our world—our cultures, our politics, our religions, our positions—I think we may not realize how ashamed or afraid we ought to be.
We can be blind to it when we haven't bitten an apple other than ours. Or perhaps we are in a place where we haven't even seen another tree, let alone its fruit.
We need to look at our state of affairs. Is it a singular garden? Perhaps solely surrounded and influenced by our fruit-filled inputs, positions, and plant-mates.
We may need to embrace a few other apples and take a bite. We can miss out on our own fruitfulness when we keep to a conditioned diet.
In the book of Galatians, we hear that "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
It is for freedom. Our freedom. Take time—that valuable and uncommon resource—to examine your "yokes of slavery." Who or what holds the keys to your shackles? Is it loyalty? Agreement? Tradition? Comfort?
Allow yourself to eat other fruit and not combat it simply because it doesn't taste according to your conditioned palate.
Even with our faith.
I have been attending Dr. Holley's church, Unity Worship in Cartersville, GA. It is a new tree in my garden. I am tasting new tastes that were not on my traditional menu. I am finding freedom there. A freedom from my own condition.
While Unity is susceptible to a conditioning of its own—as is every church—they are very mindful of that reality, both from the pulpit and in the pew. And I am enjoying the feast.
So, branch out of your comfort, your condition. Eat more fruit. We may not realize how our current palate has limited us in our understanding and pursuit of God and our knowledge of the Kingdom and its expanse.
Other fruit can show us our blind spots, our limitations, our shackles. Be brave and bold with your palate.
* Dr. Holley has written many books that address the condition of the legalism and traditionalism of the church and its church-goers. You can find them here.