the trouble with us....

I read this in the Dunkin Donut shop on Thursday morning.

(Bubba sent me away before the shutter men came.)

I was eating a pumpkin muffin and drinking their wonderful coffee.

It was my first taste of pumpkin this season.

This says it all....

The Trouble With Us

"Man and woman,

placed by God in a state of paradise and perfection,

felt that even paradise was an insult to them,

because there was subjection to God.

It was that original act of rebellion that lead to all their other troubles ~ 

that is the story of the Bible.

This initial act of rebellion produced fear in them;

once they knew they had done something they should not have done,

that caused them to look at each other with

jealousy and envy.

Then the children came,

and they were envious and jealous and so on;

sorrow came after sorrow.

And it can all be traced back to the fact

that men and women were really meant to live a life

in communion with God,

and that happiness, in a full and final sense,

is only really possible when they obey the law of their own being:

and that as long as they refuse to do that,

they can experience nothing but

 turmoil and unhappiness and wretchedness.

This, says the Bible,

is the state of the world away from God.

It rebels against God,

and therefore produces its own miseries.

It does not argue about that,

it just tells us,

and the whole state of the world is just a proof of that.

It is no use, says the Bible,

you can do what you like,

you can organize and scheme as much as you like, 

but while men and women are in a wrong relationship with God,

they can never be better."

{MLJ ~ Life in Christ}

As Augustine put it,

{Thou hast made us for Thyself,

and our souls are restless

 until they find their rest in Thee.}

Ah truth ~ so good to hear and know it!