A Subtle Reminder

(If you think this doesn’t apply to you, wait till the end)

I was in the shower the other day when a spot on my back started to itch again. Even though it was my back that itched and not yours, you probably know exactly the spot I am talking about. It was that spot on your back that you just can’t reach yourself. It is a bit frustrating when there is an itch there.

I don’t seem to be the only one who suffers from getting an itch you just can’t scratch. In fact, there is a term for this exact thing:

Acnestis (ak-NEES-tis): The part of an animal's skin that it cannot reach to scratch itself - usually the space between the shoulder blades.

I was somewhat surprised to find a word for this plight.

All this got me to wondering why there is a spot we cannot reach. Did God create mankind in all our magnificence and then when Adam got the first itch on his back that he could not reach say “Oops, I didn’t think about that?” I highly doubt that God did not foresee this issue. I am not saying this is a major issue or anything. However, his ability to design to the smallest detail is so astounding that I believe He never says “Oops” about anything He has designed. (In fact my latest book is devoted to that exact topic: God Doesn’t Say Oops)

If God could foresee this problem, why did He not simply adjust the design of our shoulders or our elbows to bend just a few degrees more to be able to reach our acnestis (the spot we cannot reach)? This is total speculation on my part, but I believe I may know one reason why He gave us a spot we just could not reach alone. It may be a way for God to subtly remind each of us that we cannot do everything by ourselves; we often need help from others. This need is one of the primary reasons why God created the church. Sure, you can get a stick or something to scratch your back, but that still requires you to look outside yourself for help to some degree. The most fulfilling way to have that itch scratched is to have someone else scratch it for you. Then you can just relax and enjoy it.

God designed us to need other people in our lives. A very wise man once wrote:

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. – Proverbs 27:17 (HCSB)

Being around others helps us grow stronger (emotionally, mentally, and sometimes physically). There is also power in simply being with other people:

And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. – Ecclesiastes 4:12 (HCSB)

God wants us to depend on other people and not merely on ourselves. That is one of the main purposes of Christ establishing the church. It is here to help us through this life.

So, the next time your back itches and you just can’t reach that itch, remember that you are not meant to go through life alone. Be thankful that God has put others in your life to help you with that itch and with the much more serious problems you encounter in your journey through this life.

[Addendum: Apparently some of us need to be reminded that we cannot do everything by ourselves more than others. After I wrote this blog, I showed it to my wife who quickly responded, “I can reach my entire back. I don’t have an acnestis.” Then, to my dismay, both of my kids and her promptly showed me that they can in fact reach every spot on their backs without any help. I then started to think I was quite unique in the fact that there is a massive area on my back that I cannot reach. After that, I started asking my friends, neighbors, and strangers if they did or did not have an acnestis. (I loved the looks I got from this question.) I was happy to discover that most people do in fact have a place on their backs which they cannot reach. I was not happy that they could not reach those spots but that my wife and 2 kids were the odd-balls and not myself.

So, if you have no trouble reaching everywhere on your body by yourself, then maybe you do not need to be reminded that you need help from others quite as much as I do.]

This is Not Plan B

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Matthew 25:34 (HCSB)

Many people in the world have the misconception that Eve messed up the plan God had for us. There may even be some who think we would still be in the Garden of Eden if she had not taken a bite from that fruit.  However, Eve did not wreck God’s plans.  I will discuss why we know that is true in a bit, but I want us to think about this misconception first.  You may think this misunderstanding doesn’t really mean much, but there are some important implications to believing this lie.

One thing implied by this misconception is that humans have the power to hinder God’s plans.  We don’t.  God is far too powerful for that.  Thinking we can throw a monkey wrench into God’s plans is simply giving us too much credit.  Job had it right when he replied to God saying, “I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)  Later, we will see why Eve did not mess up His plans.

Another thing implied by the misconception that Eve messed up God’s plans is that God did not see it coming.  That is not true.  God knew mankind would sin and would need to be saved from those sins.  The Bible tells us He had a plan to save us from our sins before He even created the world.  Paul tells us:

⁴For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself.
Ephesians 1:4-5 (HCSB)

Before God even created the world, He knew we would need to be adopted back as His children through Jesus Christ.  God knew man was too weak to resist sin.  I am sure he knew Adam and Eve would sin since no person is strong enough to resist the attraction of sin.  Because He knew this, He planned for Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price of our sins before He even made us.  Wow, that is love!  God wanted us to be able to enjoy Him so much that the Father and the Son were willing to pay that price.

Some people think that since God knew Adam and Eve would fall to sin and since He placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil right there in front of them that God was setting them up for failure.  That is true in a sense but false in another.  It is true that God placing them in the Garden with the tree did guarantee them to fall victim to sin.  While this is true, God had already planned to pay the price for their mistake before He put them there.  It is kind of like having a teacher giving her students a VERY hard test on purpose.  The students fail the test horribly.  However, after she grades the tests and informs the students of their grades, she turns around and retakes the test herself and gives each student a 100% on the test.  While it is true that Adam and Eve failed the test, they still got to be 100% pure in the end because Jesus took the test too and passed it for them.

God’s plan for mankind was made before the creation of the world and before Adam and Eve’s sin.  That sin did not change His plan one bit.  The Heavenly Kingdom awaiting all Christians was planned before they sinned and even before this creation was made.

The Human Dilemma

⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will

Ephesians 1:4-5 (NIV)

These two verses may be the most powerful ones in the entire Bible.  They sum up both the entirety of God’s plan for us and His love for us very nicely.  They clearly state the dilemma God had when deciding whether or not to create mankind.  I just love these verses!

The phrase “before the creation of the world” reflects back to Genesis 1:26 when God is talking to Himself and says "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (NIV).  It was not some rash impulse that God had to create mankind.  There was a lot of thought put into the plan to create us and what that would mean.

In Job 38:4-7, God told Job the angels were around when God created us.  If God already had the angels, He must have desired something different from mankind.  We do not know exactly what an angel’s relationship to God is or how much freedom an angel is given.  However, it seems that once an angel chooses to disobey God, there is no turning back to Him.  There is no account of an angel repenting in the Bible.

With us it is different.  Each of us breaks our relationship with God when we sin.  We then need to turn to Jesus to have those sins forgiven and our relationship with God restored.  After that point, we remain faithful and our relationship with God is secure, even when we do sin again.  That is what is meant when it says that God “predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.”  When we are saved from our sins we are also adopted into God’s family.  This all means that we appear to have more freedom of choice than the angels do.  Creating us with the ability to choose to serve Him meant that some people would choose not to.  Even those who do choose to serve God do not always do what He wants them to do.  According to James 4:17, any time we fail to live up to what God wants of us, it is sin.  What is mind boggling is that before God even created us, He knew we would sin and that He would have to send Jesus to die for those sins to restore our relationship with Him.  As soon as God created us, Jesus was sentenced to death.  Yet, because He loved us so much, even before you, I, or anyone else was created, He was willing to pay that price.

That is why I feel these two verses are so powerful.  They speak of God’s wisdom in understanding the failings mankind would have and being able to devise a plan to overcome them.  They also speak of God’s love for us with Him being willing to send Jesus to die for our failings.  But even more powerfully, they tell us He was willing to create us knowing the full extent of the pain and suffering it would cause Him.  He could have seen the price Jesus would have to pay for creating us and decided He was fine with just having angels around.  God did not need us.  He is complete within Himself.  Yet, He knew that we would benefit greatly from being in relationship with Him so He was willing to pay that price so that we could experience all the good He can offer us.  Praise God for His love for us and His desire for us to experience the blessings which can only come from Him, especially since He had to pay a terrible price for that to be possible! 

Keep in mind that we are only experiencing a part of God while in this life.  We cannot fully appreciate what God has done for us until we reach Heaven and can truly realize what it means to have been adopted into God’s family and the blessings that come with that.

Everyone Lives by Faith

Everyone acts based on what they truly believe; what they have faith in.  Christians, Hindus, Jews, and yes, even atheists all have faith.  The standard Biblical definition is, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV).  However, I’d like to use a slightly broader working definition of faith for this discussion so that I will not be accused of applying a Christian definition to non-Christians.  That definition of faith is:

Trusting something you cannot completely prove.

I am not taking liberty to redefine a word to suit my arguments.  Most dictionaries have similar a definition.  This definition is just a fairly short common one.

Absolute Certainty

Let me explain what I meant when I said everyone acts based on their faith.  It is easily seen in everyday events.  Are you sitting down as you read this?  Did you have a structural engineer come and examine the chair before you sat down to verify it would hold your weight?  Did you run tests with weighted dummies?  Surely you did not.  You did not absolutely prove the chair would hold your weight, yet you sat down anyway.   You acted on your faith in the chair’s ability to hold you up; although you know in the back of your mind that in the past chairs have broken when others have sat on them.

Historical Evidence

You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I have historical evidence that the chair would hold my weight.  I was not acting out of any kind of faith.”  You may have sat down in that chair 1,000 times before.  That does not preclude the possibility of it falling apart on the 1,001st time you sit on it.  You have to admit the chair will fall apart at some point.  Generally, that takes a very long time, but manufacturing flaws happen which reduce how long chairs last.  You are assuming you do not have one of those chairs.  Even with historical evidence, you are still acting from faith.

Probability

Now you may be thinking that you were not acting out of faith when you sat in your chair, but merely playing the odds as it were.  You knew there was a possibli.ity of the chair collapsing.  But, the chances of the chair falling to pieces when you sat on it were so small it was not worth the effort to confirm it would not.  That is a very reasonable thing to do.  In fact, we could not function as productive individuals if we did not act in such a way.  Those who have no trust at all in these types of things are either heavily medicated or locked away to prevent them from harming others.

Let’s drive down the road of acting based on probability and see where it leads.  If you live in this way, how do you determine what is a reasonable risk and what is not?  We have already proven that sitting in a chair with merely a visual inspection is a reasonable risk.  However, running across a busy road without looking certainly is not a reasonable risk.  Our life experiences, lessons taught by our parents and others, and knowledge of the fate of others who tried similar things help us to determine what is reasonable and what is not.  Clearly what one person thinks is reasonable may not be to another person; as you hear about people doing things that are clearly stupid and unreasonable all the time.  So, if each person is coming up with what they think is reasonable, what is the underlying foundation of that reasonableness?  You must believe in your ability to correctly determine the odds of something being dangerous or you would be in that group of nonfunctional, heavily medicated folks mentioned earlier.  Are all people given extensive training in probabilities and statistics?  Do people do extensive research into chair failures to come up with a probability of when their chair may fail?  Of course not; well not 99.99999% of people anyway.  So, in the end we act out of faith in our ability to determine if something is dangerous or not.

Heavier Matters

Yes, sitting down is a pretty trivial example, but it shows how pervasive faith is in our lives.  Let’s leave trivialities and move on to matters of substance.  You will notice the discussion of faith above had absolutely nothing to do with religion.  Those who embrace a religion freely admit that faith is very important to them.  But, those who deny God tend to say they live without any kind of faith.  I think we have already proven how weak that statement truly is.  No one can be ABSOLUTELY sure of anything on this earth!  We can be VERY sure of things, but we are too limited to be able to know the full truth about anything.

I know some of you are thinking, “I know that God exists.”  Do you?  Can you PROVE that to any person and leave no room for doubt?  If you could, you would not have a faith in God but a proof of God.  One day our faith will become sight (Rom 14:11), but for now we live by faith (2 Cor 5:7).

To the scientifically minded, this talk of faith may seem like nonsense.  They only believe what they can prove through science.  Do they?  Scientist base MOST of what they believe on the authority of others.  If every scientist had to prove every fact on which they would base further work, we would have very few scientific or technological advances.  In fact, we would have no advances, since we cannot absolutely prove anything.  C.S. Lewis talks about how we accept authority in Mere Christianity:

Do not be scared by the word authority.  Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy.  Ninety—nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself.  I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place.  I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority – because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority.  None one us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics.  We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them: in fact, on authority.  A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.

Scientists have faith in the findings of those who have gone before them.

Weigh the Evidence

If we cannot absolutely prove anything and we must accept things on the authority of others, do we just give up trying to know if anything is true?  Absolutely not!  We merely accept our humble position of not being the definers of truth.  We must accept our role as seekers of truth; knowing that we cannot know with absolute certainty what that truth is.  We look to see which things seem to be the truest.  My next blog will delve into some of those things, but there is too much to even skim the surface now.

To leave no doubt as to where I stand, I believe the most enduring and reasonable truth to be Jesus.  Yes I said Jesus, not the Bible.  Jesus is the truth, not the Bible.  The Bible is a reflection of the truth and our best resource to know the truth, but it is not the truth itself.
Living by Faith

So, we all live based on our faith.  We have different ways of determining our faith in different areas of our lives.  Obviously, some areas are more important than others: chairs versus God.  It is important to know your faith in any area is based on a reasonable and trustworthy foundation!

It Is Not Good For Man To Be Alone

Imagine what life was like for Adam prior to God creating Eve.  He lived in a sinless world.  Food came easily to him.   He had all kinds of animals with which to play and spend time.  He had no fear of these animals or they of him.  But best of all, he was in the presence of God!  Adam could talk to God whenever he wanted.  How awesome would that be?

The beauty of the uncontaminated earth must have been awe inspiring.  Adam surely praised God for the beauty that was around him.  The conversations between Adam and God were most likely casual.  I find it very hard to imagine Adam talking to God in a formal way all the time.  He may have also addressed him in a serious or formal manner from time to time.  A typical conversation could have gone something like this:

Adam: Wow God, great sunrise this morning!
God: Thanks, I put in a little iridescent purple for you.  Did you like it?
Adam: Yes!  That was pretty cool.

Adam obviously knew God was far superior to himself.  Yet that would not prevent them from having a friendship.  God and Adam surely walked together in the garden with Adam asking about various plants or animals and God explaining various aspects of His creation.  Adam could also have asked for gardening tips.  He was put there to work the garden after all.

Since Adam had work to do, did he seek to improve his ability to perform his work?  I would imagine he did, as the need to improve is a God given human characteristic.  He could have worked to improve his gardening skills.  Adam had many other things in which he could improve.  He could train the animals.  He could try to run faster or walk farther.  He could work to increase his mental abilities or knowledge.  He could even improve his relationship with God by getting to know more about Him and His creation.

Adam had great companionship and things to work on.  This sounds pretty wonderful.  What more could a man ask for?  He was the ultimate bachelor; just without a remote control.  However, something was not right with this situation.

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. Genesis 2:18 (NIV)

Think about that.  Even though Adam was in a perfect relationship with God (no sin) and lived in a sin free world, it was not enough!  Something was missing; it was not good for him to be alone.  Of course he was not technically alone, since he had God and the animals.  But they were not like him.  He was alone in the sense that he lacked a companion who was very much like him.

God parades every type of animal in front of Adam to help drive home the point that none of them will fill the need of companionship.  After Adam realizes none of these are what he needs, God makes Eve to be a helper and companion for him.  Ephesians 1:4 tells us: For he chose us in him [Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  God knew before He created anything that He would need to send Jesus to save us from our sins.  So, He also knew Adam would need Eve as a companion before He created him.  Why didn’t God create them both at the same time?  One reason was to help Adam appreciate the gift he had been given so he would cherish the relationship all the more.

With Eve in his life, Adam had many new areas in which he could improve.  For one, he never had to agree on anything with an equal before.  If he had a misunderstanding or disagreement with God, there was no question of who was right.  But with Eve, he now had to deal with someone who could just as easily be wrong about something as he could.  Or, they may simply have different desires at the same time.  He may have wanted to collect apples and she wanted to get watermelons.

There were of course many new things he had to deal with now.  One was how to communicate with another person.  He also now had to think about what it would take to please Eve.  God created Adam as the spiritual leader, so now he had leadership responsibilities.

Since he was a spiritual leader, he needed to model spiritual growth.  Which of items for improvement prior to having Eve were related to spiritual growth?  Most of those items such as gardening, physical improvement, animal control, and mental improvement do not directly cause spiritual growth.  It was only improving his relationship with God that was directly related to spiritual growth.

It seems that all the things listed as things to improve after Eve arrived were spiritually related.  Agreeing with someone requires compassion, understanding, and patience.  Improving your communication skills with another person also involves improving your understanding and compassion.  Being a better leader requires you to be more aware of the needs of those following.  There are of course things you can get involved in with another person that are not spiritual, but doing the right things in a relationship does involve a lot of spiritual growth.

What seems clear is that we have much more potential to grow spiritually when we are involved in the lives of others.  Not only are we forced to deal with things we would not encounter on our own, but we also benefit from their encouragement.

Taking time to be with God by yourself is beneficial.  It allows you to remove distractions and really focus on Him.  However, that cannot be the only way you seek to grow spiritually.  If you try that, you are stunting your spiritual growth.  It is not good for man to be alone.  You need relationships in your life which force you to deal with situations from which you can grow.  You can of course choose to avoid relationships because of the issues that arise from them.  But know that each time you do that, you are depriving yourself of a chance at spiritual growth.

Even if a relationship is causing you to struggle with something, you can be thankful for that growth opportunity.  It will not make you happy about the situation, but it can help you get through it easier.  So, thank God for the people He has placed in your life through which you can grow into more of what He envisions you can be.

Cherish Normal

I was recently on a college campus as a coach for my son’s robotic tournament.  While walking around outside, I saw some college boys doing something that was very interesting.  A couple of boys were setting up a pretty expensive video camera on a tripod and the third had a skateboard.  They were pointing the camera up a flight of stairs of about 10 concrete stairs which had a metal handrail about 3 feet high running down the middle.  After the boys got the camera set up, the third boy sped toward the stairs on his skateboard, slammed the back of the board down really hard, jumped his board up into the air onto the 3 feet high handrail, landed sideways on the rail, and slid down the rail while still standing on the skateboard.  Well, at least he slid most of the way down, I never saw him make it all the way.  Still, it was pretty amazing how he was able to jump his board up that high and land it on the rail sideways while still riding it.  I think that is called a boardslide but I am not sure.  With my knees, even thinking about that kind of stuff makes them hurt.

The ability of the boy on skateboard was pretty impressive (at least to me).  However, that was not what captured my attention.  The thing that struck me most was that he was not wearing any safety gear at all!  What he was doing was extremely dangerous.  I cringed every time he started to head for the railing, and not just because it hurt my knees just to watch.  One fall could have changed that young man’s life forever or even ended it.  Yet there he was, risking his entire future for a good film clip.  The risk versus reward was insanely out of balance.  When we are young we tend to think we are immune to serious injury or death.  Or we just try hard to ignore the possible consequences.  Maybe one reason watching these boys bothered me so much was that it forced me to remember the stupid things I have done in my life.

Once again, I think God is bringing things into my path for a purpose.  This time it is to help me contemplate life and death so I can better appreciate the life He has blessed me with.  It may also be to help me look forward to my eternal life with Him and not focus entirely on the life I have here on earth.

Another thing God put into my life recently is that I just learned a friend of mine has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.  He was the one to tell me.  He and his wife just found out a few days ago.  It is amazing how quickly life can go from wonderful to tragic.  What is amazing about this is not that he asked for my prayers, but for what he asked me to pray about.  He said, “I am not afraid of dying and my fervent wish remains for my faith to be kept as strong as where it stands (on the promises of God) right now and not falter under the strain of anything ‘new’ that may have to be negotiated ‘down here’ in the interim, as well as not listening to the ‘master liar’ whispering in my ear.”  He also wants me to pray for healing, but that really is secondary to him.  It reminded me of my father’s faith during his fight with stomach cancer.  Right up to the end he was walking around telling other patients about God.

I can only hope my faith is that strong in the face of something like cancer, an injury, or even the loss of one of my children.  Of course I can sit here with my family and myself in perfect health and believe my faith will be strong if something like that happens.  But you never really know until you are actually tested.  However, you can prepare for those storms by drawing closer and closer to God during the calm times.  If your relationship with God is strong, it will survive some rough waters.  What you cannot do very well is grope for a God you do not know with the waves crashing over your head.  It is possible, but much more difficult.

I really do not want this to be a depressing blog entry.  So, let me get to the point of all this.  We need to appreciate the normal times of life and be thankful for them.  Sure, I love the high points in life.  Like the week I just had off around Christmas to spend with my family or the trip to Disney we are planning.  The problem is that we tend to take the routine normal days for granted.  I am starting to be more and more thankful for normal days at work.  It certainly is no fun when you are scrambling around to put out fires at work all day long.  However, those times have made me appreciate the days at work when there are not any fires and the day is just plain normal.  For some of you reading this you may only be able to dream of days without any fires to put out.  For you, I would say appreciate the days when you only have a 1 alarm fire instead of a 5 alarm fire.

Maybe it is just because I have probably crested the top of the hill of life and am starting to head back down the other side that I am starting to appreciate the normal times more than I have in the past.  I really enjoy sitting around the dinner table as a family and talking about what happened during the day, playing games with my kids, or just watching television as a family.  Those simple times are giving me real joy.  Part of that appreciation is because I will not have these times with my kids for many more years before they are off on their own.  I am starting to appreciate what a blessing it is to give thanks in all circumstances.

I encourage you (and myself) to cherish normal.  Don’t just look forward (or back) to the big events or occasions in life to find joy, but experience joy in the normal times as well.

¹⁶ Be joyful always;
¹⁷ pray continually;
¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18