Where Are You?

Our lives have been simplified by global positioning systems (GPS) in our cars or smart phones. Just click on the dashboard assistant or smartphone app and it tells you exactly where you are. It can also guide you step-by-step, turn-by-turn, exit-by-exit to your desired destination. Knowing one’s geographic location is now a piece of cake. No more getting lost, misdirected or disoriented. Even if you make a wrong turn, the GPS or smart phone courteously prompts you to “recalculate” and correct your course. While this latest technology has successfully solved the problem of being displaced geographically, there’s a lot more to life than knowing the physical coordinates of where we happen to be at a particular moment. We also find ourselves in financial places, emotional places, relational places, social places, and a host of other “places”. So how do we find our way through these mazes, and if lost in one of them, find our way back on track? There was a couple who had found themselves in such a place. They had received clear instructions on what to do to stay on point and arrive in a good, safe place. But they decided to try a different game plan. That decision put them out of touch with the most important person in their lives. It also put into play a string of events and consequences that have affected everyone related to and around them. Here’s their story. They were newly weds, and were they ever crazy about each other! They’d just moved into the most upscale neighborhood in town. It had everything a resident could ever ask for or want. Best of all, it was a rent-free district. They also secured jobs that were fulfilling and a boost to their self-esteem. The husband took a position with a long-standing employer who had a reputation for treating his employees with the utmost consideration. His job in the Human Resources office required him to identify (by name) and create a file on all current and prospective employees in the region. His decisions and records would become the international standard. Meanwhile, the wife was content to be a stay-at-home mom for the children she was soon to be bearing. Of all the items contained in the corporate policy statement, there was only one stipulation. The couple could go grocery shopping anywhere they wished, except for one particular store. That store was officially off-limits, and patronizing it carried some really stiff penalties. Things went quite smoothly the first few weeks as the couple enjoyed a level of honeymoon privacy like no other since. In their free time when they weren’t preoccupied with their new jobs, they enjoyed taking long evening walks. The area where they lived was like one continuous, semi-tropical garden. An endless stream of trees, vegetation and flowers blanketed the entire landscape. Beautiful would have been considered an understatement. Breath-takingly gorgeous would be more like it. Coupled with the cool evening breezes that wafted through the treetops, the setting was absolutely idyllic. Each evening they enjoyed the gracious company of the landlord. Like a tour guide, He led them through path after path of discoveries that were simply amazing. The wildlife, the skies, the mountains and hills, the rivers and streams, the lakes, the sunsets (oh, those SUNSETS!) They walked together and talked about anything and everything that came across their incredibly sharp minds. It was a great start for a relationship that possessed limitless potential. Everyone was perfectly happy sharing life together in a literal utopia. Then it came. The day when they decided to check out an unfamiliar neighborhood. They knew very little about this area, except that any food from there could be harmful or fatal if consumed. As it turned out, none of this appeared to be the case after all. The landlord over there also seemed to be a very friendly chap. He was unexpectedly kind, warmly inviting them to peruse his neck of the woods. The couple accepted his offer, and the landlord accompanied them. The couple was pleasantly surprised at how fresh and appetizing all the produce looked. Why, they couldn’t believe for a moment that such good-looking food would ever present even a hint of risk to their health. What’s more, the landlord explained that certain products on his shelves possessed unusual capabilities. Some products made the customer wiser and healthier than they were before partaking. Indeed, they’d receive newfound abilities that their current landlord didn’t want them to possess for fear they’d become competitors for his real estate holdings. Or so the other landlord had said. What possible reason could they find to refrain from sampling this mouth-watering produce? Concerned for the welfare of her family, the wife offered a few objections. But the landlord was a pro at answering customer objections, and convinced the cautious couple to just give the fruit a try, just a little bite, to see whether his claims were true or not. Anxious to experience the promised rush of intellectual brilliance and moral freedom, they yielded to his subtle sales tactics. They each took a healthy bite out of the luscious fruit. Initially their taste buds exploded with indescribable sweetness. But once they’d sampled the produce, something immediately changed. They felt so different. It was not a good feeling at all. They experienced a real deep sense of loss, yet they couldn’t quite put their finger on what it was they had lost. Then another emotion arose inside them, a feeling of being all alone. Finally, it dawned on them what had happened. They fell prey to the deceptions of the landlord of the forbidden garden, and had eaten the very produce they were strictly warned against by their benevolent landlord. A profound sense of shame and embarrassment came over them. They saw things in a new way, alright, but it wasn’t the wonderful change which the evil landlord had promised. Having realized the folly of their decision, they began to formulate a cover-up for their infraction. The two scrambled to find something to hide their nakedness, for now, for the first time in their lives, they were uncomfortable with going clothes-less. In their haste, just a few large leaves from a nearby tree seemed to suffice. Soon after they had secured a temporary fix to their wardrobe problem, the time arrived for their evening walk. But this time the familiar sound of the landlord’s approaching footsteps registered I them the emotion of fear. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had seriously violated corporate policy. They had disappointed and disrespected their landlord, and weren’t ready to face the guilty trauma of revealing their failure to him. So they ran away and hid among the cover of some nearby trees. They hadn’t gone very far before they heard a familiar voice. It was the voice of their landlord. His words were framed in the form of a question: “WHERE ARE YOU?” Immediately those few words pierced their hearts like a razor-sharp sword. Like days of childhood when parents called out in the neighborhood to summon their playing kids home to dinner … “Yoo-hoo, Adam? Where are you?” “You who, Eve? Where are you?” But like kids who’ve gotten into some serious trouble while playing outdoors, the couple momentarily avoids answering the landlord’s call. Then came their reply. Adam took the lead at the witness stand. He admitted to the fact that he was now naked, and how that embarrassing estate led him to fear meeting up with his landlord. Then came the ill-anticipated query: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Adam’s charge that his wife was responsible began a litany of excuses, just like the ones millions of their progeny would throw out for millennia to come. The wife followed, using the same tactic of blame-shifting, only in her case, it was the evil landlord’s fault. The landlord would have nothing of the blame game. Then, with words that must have shot like lightning through their souls, they heard the sentences delivered upon their heads for their unwarranted and unacceptable conduct. At that moment the gravity of their actions hit them. This was no small violation. Indeed, life would never be the same for them. Instead of a blessing, the man’s joyful work would become a drudgery. The woman’s exquisite joy of birthing of children would become an excruciatingly painful experience. There would also be the added dimension of endless rivalry for power between the couple themselves. Their irresponsible behavior radically altered their attitudes from perfect contentment with their respective roles to deep discontentment. In mercy, God graciously replaced the couples’ ridiculous, inappropriate wardrobe of fig leaves with animal skins. A much more adequate, comfortable and durable solution. God’s soul-searching question to Adam and Eve wasn’t singular in nature. Actually, it’s a question He poses to each one of us. As children of Adam and Eve, we’ve inherited a nature that also dumps the good and perfect for the evil and twisted. WE also struggle with the shame and negative consequences of failing to live up to standards, either self-made or divinely proscribed. We, too, possess a gnawing sense of guilt over wrongs committed. And we, too, try to hide the emptiness we feel down deep inside, in those secret places that can only be filled with God Himself. So where are you today? Where are you Emotionally? Financially? Relationally? Socially? Just WHERE ARE YOU? And most importantly, where are you in your relationship with God? Would you say you are “hiding from Him”? Are you afraid of Him? Afraid of what He will find if you open your heart to Him? Are you using the “fig leaves” of busyness, pride or denial to cover up that empty, loneliness you feel inside? Are you running from Him, unwilling to face the consequences of your poor choices? If so, have I got great news for you! When Jesus came to earth, one of His missions was to prove that a man could be perfectly obedient to God, even in the face of the strongest temptations ever dished out to a human being. In the wilderness Jesus did just that. By defeating Satan’s allurements He proved that, what Adam and Eve failed to do, He would, could, and did do. But a paramount problem still remained. The debt load that our sins accumulated had to be paid for … in FULL! So Jesus went to the cross to suffer and die as our substitute. And God accepted His death as payment-in- full for our sin debt! Remember how God provided animal skins to clothe the first couple’s nakedness? That act represented two important things God would do for us down the road. First, it represents the way we find ourselves without Christ, guilty of sin, and naked before God, unfit to stand before Him. Secondly, it represents what God was going to do for us through Christ. And that was, He clothed them with a covering that required the bloodshed of innocent animals. Jesus shed His sinless, innocent blood so that God could clothe us with His righteousness. We no longer have to stand out in the cold of unbelief, darkness and isolation. We can be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself! That is accomplished when we admit our sin, turn from it, and trust Jesus’ death for our sins, alone, as sufficient for our salvation. There’s nothing else we’ll ever need to do to be forgiven or accepted by God right now. Jesus paid all the penalty. Now it’s our move. Now it’s your move.