Perhaps ideas of sinfulness are so attractive because we all feel such deep guilt for our shortcomings. We fail to recognize that the ability to recognize our brokenness and shortcomings is directly rooted in knowing our potential. We miss exactly that out of Paul: “You really can do it.” Maybe living into a better future, into Kingdom, involves tapping into our inner Eden– into the memory of potential and beginnings. In eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we became so preoccupied with evil. It took us by surprise because we had only known Good. We found it in ourselves and it ruined everything… but only because we let it.
We took in the Good, too. We took on the capacity for Great Good. As beings in the image of God, we must acknowledge that the Universe, made of the same stardust as we are, is composed also of life and death, destruction, birth, and rebirth.
We recognize our brokenness only because we can see our potential. We can live forward into it, knowing that the tree gives us sight of Great Good and Great Evil. We do not need to be overtaken by one or the other, we need to do our best and know that when we fail, when we feel the great guilt and brokenness of failure, we feel so only because we know we are capable of more. We should live into that possibility– the possibility of reaching our best selves. We feel bead because we know we are good– we are better.
We celebrate our ability to discern good and bad, our best and worse selves, by continually analyzing our lives and the ways that we can live into the good. We use this “power” to stop injustice and build peace and freedom. We do so by continuing to eat from the Tree of Life– engaging in the world in ways that are life-giving and help us to be better people creating a better world.
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