Perhaps my favorite nursery rhyme is Humpty Dumpty.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
As I read that, I have a question. Who pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall?
Humpty Dumpty is a picture of what happened at the greatest crime scene of all time. Adam and Eve, sat in this perfect place, called Eden. Who pushed them? Obviously, they were nudged by Satan, but ultimately, they pushed themselves off that wall. They made a decision that led to sin and to the fall.
When we think about biblical history, Adam and Eve became the first Humpty Dumpty of all humanity as they fell off that wall and broke into a thousand pieces. They couldn’t get back on the wall; they couldn’t get back into Eden.
We have spent generations trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again through:
- religiosity.
- good works.
- wars that have tried to settle disputes.
- positive thinking.
- entertainment.
- drugs to try to dull pain.
- movements and philosophies.
We can even use something like Intentional Living in the wrong way to try to rectify what only God can.
God is the only One who can put Humpty Dumpty back together again through His offer of salvation, but the cracks remain.
The Crime Scene
The reality is what happened in the Garden of Eden, when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall, became the greatest crime scene of all time.
At a crime scene, the first thing you want to do is to find out what really happened. When people ask for help, they’re facing emotional or relational issues. And I’m always interested in going back to the Genesis story in terms of their own life.
- What was the starting point of these issues that they’re facing in their life?
- What happened?
- Why did it happen?
- And how is it affecting them today?
As we come to know Christ, we hear about Adam and Eve’s fall, their sin and find the only
solution is a sacrifice, and God provided that. Then there’s a period of silence between the old and new testaments. Then Jesus comes on the scene as the ultimate redeemer.
- Jesus lived His life in perfection.
- He went to the cross and gave His life in exchange for ours.
- He was buried and He rose again.
- He returned to Heaven to prepare a place for us.
- And He’s coming back again to retrieve us to be with Him (John 14).
The problem is, we don’t hear very much about how what happened at the fall affects us. We learn about brokenness and that we need a Savior, but not about the cracks that exist in our lives as a result of Humpty Dumpty being put back together again with a lot of cracks.
We’re not immune as followers of Christ from the cracks that occurred on that moment in time. It only took a day, a few hours or thirty minutes to move from a place of perfection – sitting
on the wall of Eden – to Adam and Eve’s fall. Humanity has spent eons of time trying to correct and rectify everything that was destroyed in that moment.
You and I are the victims of Adam and Eve’s sin. When Humpty Dumpty fell, we were dragged along and we’re still suffering from those things that occurred emotionally, relationally and physically. What happened on that day, in that place, is real.
Shame, blame and pain vibrated throughout history when Humpty Dumpty hit the ground, and those three things affect the lives of every single person today. And we’ll look at these three cracks in the following blog, 3 Cracks in Humanity from the Fall that Affect You Today.
The Garden of Eden was perfection – no sin (Genesis chapters 1 and 2). But in chapter 3, the fall of man began when Satan tempted Eve, and she chose to disobey God. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6 NKJV).
Disobedience is a crime against God, punishable by death.
- Shame (and guilt)
Shame causes us to cover up; guilt causes us to hide out. We tend to blend those two and view them as the same thing, but they’re not.
- Shame is about me, who I am.
Maybe you grew up in an environment where you never felt like you measured up. You thought you could never be good enough. Or you walked around feeling ashamed all the time.
When Adam and Eve fell from the wall, they felt shame. And like everything that occurs as a result of following sin, shame and guilt distort your lives. When we sin, shame is something that could cause us to come back to God, but instead Adam and Eve covered up (Genesis 3:7 NKJV).
We often cover up in our relationships today. If I feel shame in my life, I’m going to cover up from you. I’m not going to be vulnerable to you.
Guilt is a different emotion. Guilt is what I feel as a result of something I’ve done or not done. And so, I’m going to hide out.
So, what’s the solution?
The two most important ingredients are to
- Confess to Christ (Romans 3:23, Romans 10:9).
- Have confidence in Christ.
The greatest ways of dealing with feelings of guilt and shame are to:
- Be honest with yourself.
- Be honest with God. He already knows.
- Confess the truth.
- And then develop confidence in Christ.
2. Blame
Blame is just a quick escape from guilt. It gets me out of it and pushes the feeling aside.
- God called to Adam and asked, “Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9).
- Adam said, “I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10 NKJV).
- God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded that you should not eat” (Genesis 3:11 NKJV).
- Adam blamed his wife (Genesis 3:12).
It’s human nature to blame other people. Here’s some examples of how we blame today:
- I wouldn’t have yelled at you if you had done what you were supposed to do.
- I would have gotten it done if traffic hadn’t slowed me down.
- It’s the government’s fault.
- It’s my neighbor’s fault.
Blame can keep you from really experiencing the intentional life God has for you.
So, the solution to this blame game is the first law of five laws of Intentional Living, which is to take 100% responsibility. Remember the three-foot rule, “I’m responsible for anything that happens within three feet of where I am.”
We’re each responsible for our own thoughts, attitudes and actions. You can’t blame anyone else for how you choose to live as you strive to follow Christ (Ezekiel 18:19-20).
Blame holds you back from the freedom God intends for your life. It’s a powerful, freeing moment in a relationship to be able to say to your family, your children and friends, “I was wrong, will you forgive me?”
3. Pain
Today we not only experience the pain of living, but also the pain of dying.
God was not happy with Adam and Eve’s behavior. He addressed Satan first and then spoke to the woman about the consequences of the fall (Genesis 3:16).
God then told Adam he would toil the curse ground and return to it because that’s where he came from (Genesis 3:17-19). The consequences:
- Adam and Eve started to experience the pain of dying that we all face today— the physical, the emotional and the spiritual.
- They also began to know the pain of living.
Yet we find a solution in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (NKJV).
The reason you receive comfort from God is so you can comfort other people.
Adam and Eve are the Humpty Dumpties of humanity. And these are the three cracks that are important for us to remember as a result of the fall.
- Have you ever confessed your sin?
- Have you been afraid of death?
- Do you know that Jesus conquered death by being crucified on a cross and being raised from the dead?
- How has God comforted you?
www.theintentionallife.com.
