I imagine that most of you reading this blog post have heard the expression: “<fill in the blank> is the gift that keeps on giving.” According to YourDictionary.com, that expression is about a century old now; and it mostly like traces back to ads run by Victor-Radio, the company that had built and popularized phonographs and then eventually merged with RCA, a now disbanded company that was a household name throughout the 20th century history.
Since then, “the gift that keeps in giving” is about as cliché an expression as one gets: Numerous other companies have capitalized on this phrase in their ads – and now it has morphed into more sarcastic / joking ways to use the expression.
Case in point: I refer to original sin as the “gift that keeps on giving.” Why? Because while it is anything but a gift – hence the sarcasm – it’s the top reason people emotionally hurt one another’s soul along with their own souls. It is the shamefully, pseudo-triumphant act of saying, “Why do I need God when I can just love myself and be my own god instead?”
This is what happened in the story of Adam and Eve and why, according to Sacred Scripture, we have physical death, a fallen creation throughout our world, and a bipolar life of love and joy mixed with pain and suffering.
Which begs the question: Is it fantastically worth our short time here on Earth to keep fanning the flames of original sin? What do we gain from living a life centered around self-love and assuming spirituality means becoming your own god, instead of looking outward and being in communion with the one, true God?
And aren’t the tumultuous rifts we are currently experiencing throughout society because we have let self-absorbed entitlement squash our morals and values? Why is it so important now to trumpet our rights and privileges to the rest of the world? Why is it so necessary to construct our entire lives and experiences around self-acceptance and self-love? Why is it also necessary to push alternate realities as true, while also splitting truth into as many definitions as there are people on this planet?
Let’s borrow more from the story of Adam and Eve and apply it to our modern day: Jacob and Emily are a 30-something couple who live in a big country house out in a rural area on five acres of property. Everything about their home fits the common view of paradise: lush forests, mountains, farmland, waterfalls, a wide array of animals, and all the resources that Jacob and Emily need to thrive, survive, and raise a family together.
An elderly gentleman, David, whom Jacob and Emily had mysteriously met just a few months prior, offered them the chance to live in this paradise. But David had just one condition: Enjoy everything possible about the paradise, except not to dig up a book that is buried in their backyard. The book is called “Truth and Lies”: David explains to Jacob and Emily that he is the owner of all truths, and that if they follow the truths he revealed to them, and do not go to the book instead, that they may eternally enjoy paradise.
Then, one day, a stranger shows up at Jacob and Emily’s house. He introduces himself as Steven and says he knows David. Jacob and Emily invite Steven in for a coffee and chat. While enjoying some freshly brewed coffee, Steven asks Jacob and Emily: “By chance, has David ever mentioned a book called “Truths and Lies?” Jacob and Emily become a little distraught about the question, and then Emily answers, “Yes – but David specifically told us never to unearth that book.” Then, Steven says, “Well, that’s because if you dig up the book and read all of it, you will be the new owners of all truths and can then create whatever life you want from it, instead of having to obey David.”
Emily turns to Jacob and asks, “Let’s check it out?” Jacob replies, “Sure, it sounds like a great reward if we do.” But then, as Jacob and Emily approach the area in the backyard where the book is buried, Jacob asks, “How will we know that the truths in that book are, well, true?” Emily responds, “Here’s another way to look at it: Shouldn’t we all have our own truth? Shouldn’t we do exactly whatever we want, instead of having to follow rules? Imagine if we could be just like David or even more powerful!”
Then, Emily asks, “And what is ‘truth’ anyway? Maybe that’s just David trying to control us?” Jacob thinks about that for a moment, and then replies, “Yes, good point: Why does truth from David get to win over all other truths? I want to live my life the way I want. Whatever makes me happy is what I say now. In fact, I bet we are all a ‘David’ – we just need to learn to love and accept ourselves enough to see that. And that way, we no longer need David, or at least we don’t need him as the ultimate authority in this paradise. Even better, when we become like David, we can show other people how to be their own David. Imagine what an amazing world we will create: Everybody gets to have their own truth and be their own god. What could be better than that?”
Does any of that story sound familiar? Isn’t that exactly what is taking a wrecking ball to society today? And isn’t it more than time we admit that trying to be a god leads to the opposite effect: a society of moral relativism and just about anything goes? How is that working out for us?
Depression and anxiety here in the West are at an all-time high; the nuclear family has been deemed “old school”, while the divorce rate is well over 50%; we have an established hook-up culture with confusing perspectives on relationships; love is a disposable thing and not the direct reflection of God’s love; and scores of selfie-taking social media users are enthusiastically proclaiming self-love and pushing group and/or self-identity as the be-all, end-all to happiness and acceptance.
The “rights and privileges” experiment has failed – big time. It is now time to reclaim what universally does work: Accepting God’s grace and living by true, moral obedience.