I was recently asked to do a five minute talk for a mens breakfast. As I pondered what to talk about I thought about Adam.
The first man.
The blueprint.
But as it turns out Adam didn’t do all that well. The story goes that God made a helper for Adam called Eve. The serpent came to Eve and told her to break the one rule that God had given. You see it wasn’t a hard life in the Garden of Eden, there was only one rule – don’t eat that fruit, the rest is yours.
The snake tells Eve it’s actually ok to eat that fruit and that everything will be better afterwards, and so she does.
Hang on – where’s Adam? Shouldn’t he be looking out for this woman? This helper? This gift from God?
Genisis 3.6 ‘6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.’
Adam was right there with her. The whole time. Yet he said nothing. Being a married man myself I can understand that perhaps Adam just wanted to keep the wife happy, he didn’t want to rock the boat, perhaps he didn’t have the energy for a disagreement. He was thinking in the short term.
Adam was there when God gave the one rule, he knew all about it, yet he couldn’t speak up when the time came. Instead he just went with the flow. Imagine if Adam had had the courage to think long term, to do what he knew to be right, even if it meant an argument ensued, even if the short term result wasn’t attractive.
Unfortunately for Adam it gets worse. Having both eaten that fruit, God comes to see what the crack is. He asks Adam first. And Adam basically says to God ‘It was that woman’s fault – and you were the one who put her here!’
Short term thinking is easy, and often instantly gratifying. The world revels in short term thinking, and the current financial climate is an example where this ignorance of the long term leads. By thinking in the short term Adam misses the chance to make a stand for what is right. How often I replicate this in
my own life, feigning ignorance or misunderstanding to avoid making that stand.
I’m sick of that kind of life. It’s time for a change.
Previously published on Ebs and Flows …
