Two Trees

I’ve learned a new word recently.

Life-giving.

Even those of us who don’t have a church background probably know this story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden....

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” 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?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “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.’” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “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.”

Genesis 2:8-9, 15-16, 3:1-5

The crazy thing is that the choice offered to Eve is the same choice we are offered today.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a legalistic, self-righteous mind-set. We can choose to live according to the knowledge of good and evil, maintaining a form of godliness that will ultimately leave us cold and dark. Does this mindset describe your personal experience with a lot of Christians or churches? If I were honest my answer would easily be YES.

Our other choice is to choose the tree of life. To breathe life – not rules or condemnation – into people. We know what is right and wrong when we are in the tree of life, but our attitude and expression of right and wrong are on a different level.

Sometimes we can jump between the two trees. Believe me – I know that it feels good to prove to someone how you are right and they are wrong. Yet even when we are technically right, we are achieving an empty victory at best. In other words we are right – dead right. And who wants to be that?

So… life-giving, my new phrase. I want to be life-giving. As a couple Colby and I want to be life-giving. As a family we want to be life-giving. And our deepest desire is to be a part of a church that is life-giving.

To be continued.......