Posts Tagged: Genesis 3:5

“On Not Being the Alpha Dog”

On June 6, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Our little dog Laylah likes to jump up in my seat at the dining room table. I don’t know why. Does she just like the scent of me? I can’t imagine that! But then, I’m not a dog. Or does she aspire to be the alpha dog, and thinks that she can be the alpha dog simply by sitting in my seat? Seven-and-a-half pounds of four-footed ambition!

I frequently have to tell her to vacate my seat. Sometimes she does so quickly, but sometimes I have to use the Voice of Authority.

The serpent whispered, when tempting Adam and Eve, “You will be like God . . . .” (Genesis 3:5) This is often called “the first temptation.” I suspect that it may be the only temptation. Every other temptation is simply a variation on that theme.

But God says, “I, I alone, am God, and my glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 42:8)

So, I have to choose every moment between living in Genesis 3:5 and Isaiah 42:8. And if I am trying to sit in the place of God, I need to vacate. Sometimes, I do this quickly and willingly. Sometimes, God has to use the Voice of Authority. I need to always remember: I am not the alpha dog.

Now, Laylah is lying in her little bed at my feet, looking up at me every now and then. Perhaps you and I should curl up at God’s feet today. Perhaps that is a much more comfortable place to be anyway.

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“WATCH OUT FOR PRIDE!”

On November 30, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

My wife is not a prideful person.  As evidence of her humility, she gave me permission to tell you this story about her.

And yet, even she has her struggles.  During our prayer time the other day, she was asking for me to pray for her.  She had felt left out recently in regard to a certain matter, and was feeling a bit resentful.  “I guess I’m struggling with pride,” she said.

After we had prayed, she turned to a devotional that we are working our way through (Bread for Each Day), and read it out loud.  It was titled “THE FIRST SIN”).  The Scripture reading at the beginning of the one-page meditation was Proverbs16:18.  My sweetheart read the first word of this verse, her eyes got very large, and she burst out laughing.  The first word was “Pride”!

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, italics theirs).

We laughed together about the appropriateness of this reading.  I said to God, “Hey!  Lay off!  She already admitted her pride!”

It was a good reading.  The author pointed out that pride was involved in the sin of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:5).  Perhaps there is an element of pride in every sin.

For example, I am frequently guilty of radical frustration.  “Why haven’t I read all the books ever written about the Old Testament?” I ask myself.  Sometimes, frustration boils over, and scalds me and everyone around me with resentment, envy, and self-loathing.

But why on earth do I think that I can or should have read everything written about the Old Testament?  The failure—or refusal—to recognize my own limitations is the essence of pride.

I’m not convinced that any of us can ever be entirely humble.  If we were, we would probably become proud of the fact that we were entirely humble.  We are like dogs chasing our own tails.  Seeking to be completely humble is the most subtle and most serious version of pride.

But, at least, we can be aware.  We can be aware of how many events in life (and mostly our feelings about those events) trigger our pride.  Perhaps such awareness is as close as we can ever come to humility on this side of Heaven.

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“ON BEING A SURROGATE FATHER TO A SMALL BALL OF FUR”

On October 27, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Oh God, please help me to become the man that my dog thinks that I already am!”  (The prayer of an honest man.)

“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’

 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

 Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’ ” (Genesis 1:26-28)

We now have a very small puppy.  I feel that old pride, fear, and solicitude that I used to feel for our children when they were babies.  I wish that I had continued to feel those feelings, and that I had acted accordingly as our children grew.

Our six-week-and-one-day-old puppy is going to help me get up early in the morning on a more consistent basis.  She awakened me—and my wife, of course—at about 3:18 a.m.  So, she is with me now in the study—the dog, that is.  (My wife has gone back to bed.)  The dog is sleeping in her cage, while I work at my desk and listen to WGUC.  3:18 a.m. is early, even for me.

Even though my wife did all of the heavy lifting with our children, I do remember some pretty sleepless nights.  Or, at least, some nights with sporadic sleep!  There is a reason why young people have babies.  Perhaps only young people should have puppies as well.

Our puppy is reacquainting me with some very basic, uncomfortable truths about myself.  The main reminder is this: I am a very selfish person.  This is not exactly a new revelation.  The truth is this: I have much more in common with our puppy than I have with you, God.  My dog and I are both your creatures.  We are both limited and full of ourselves.

God, you have made us human beings in your image.  Perhaps our rulership over creation is actually a matter of loving creation, and helping the rest of creation to become more than it is.  Perhaps (as C.S. Lewis thought), we are to raise even our pets to a higher level.

Perhaps.  But in order to do that, we/I need to be and become our own selves.  We/I need to be like you.  That was the original promise (or fact?), according to Genesis 1:27.  The original lie was that we needed to disobey God in order to really become like God (Genesis 3:5).  The promise (or fact?) was that we were like you.  Help us/me to live in the promise/fact, and not to buy into the lie.

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