Fear occupies that space between our pretension and God’s provision; that place where we wake up to the sobering fact that we are not enough. It was into this fear God spoke when He called to the man.

That can be a terrifying thing, to be called out, to be summoned forth from the shadows of your camouflage and into the Presence of a Holy God.

It’s a terrifying thing, yes. But, its also a necessary thing, for a man disconnected from God is a tragic end to a sad, sad story. 

“And mankind was lost forever. The End.”

Thank God the Lord called Adam out.

With those words, “Where are you?” God relationally engaged the traitor, that image-bearer turned rebel who hid among the shade of the trees and counted darkness his friend. 

It didn’t have to be this way… 

God didn’t have to do this. 

He could have written off the race of men. He could have left us alone in our lostness, forever unplugged from the Author of Life. 

Instead, God spoke into the fear and walked among us. 

Even while Adam was being cast from the Garden, Perfect Love was casting out fear. 

And the race of men, covered by the love of a merciful God, began their journey home.

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copyright 2007 Rilian

He knew… as the serpent promised the woman she would know. Adam’s eyes were opened and he knew… evil.

That enticing alternate experience to God.

From the carnage of his crash, Adam prayed. Only, his was a prayer to himself. Adam, you see, had become his own god, and those prayers had to go somewhere.

Adam tried to answer his own prayer. He sought relief from his nakedness before God among the cover of the trees and the works of his hands. Yet inside, Adam knew (for his eyes were opened) that his efforts to walk with God as peer were the stuff of folly.

Little gods in big worlds make for a whole lot of unanswered prayer. They rip a chasm between the creature’s needs and the Provider’s Presence. And into that blackness, that gulf between a thirst for life and a disconnection from the Living God, invades an experience with which we are all too familiar.

It’s an experience called fear.

“I was afraid…” Adam said.

The fear that consumed Adam in his aloneness is common to the plight of men. It’s a fear God has left us solely to the company of ourselves.

You may be afraid because you think God has left you alone. You have discovered you are insufficient to answer the crisis before you, that you cannot make a living, heal your marriage, locate your purpose, preserve your health or control your outcomes.

If you fear because you believe God is unable or unwilling to meet you in your crisis, it is because you are praying to yourself.

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copyright 2007 Rilian

A naked man stands at your very center, in the middle of that person called you. He’s the kind of guy you don’t let out in public. He is, after all… naked.

Sane people don’t let naked people run free in their worlds.

Adam didn’t.

[He] sewed fig leaves and made coverings… and hid.

Adam didn’t like the exposure; he didn’t want anyone to experience him unedited and vulnerable to the outside. Yet, outside is where Adam lived. Just like us. That’s why we walk in Adam’s pattern.

That’s why we’ll tell you about the people we know and the groups we’re in and the things we do and the stuff we have. We’ll show you anything you want to see… anything that is, except for our Selves.

I don’t know how much time elapsed between the instant Adam’s eyes were opened to his nakedness and moment he responded to God’s call. I do know what he was doing in the space between.

He was hiding and he was working.

This is the same thing we do to manage the gap between the men we are and the presentations we make.

We either hide to blend in or we work to stand out.

Either tactic seeks anonymity; it desires to deflect attention away from our centers and into our circumstances or achievements.

When Adam disconnected from God, he inherited a tragic tension. It’s a tension we manage every day. We desire to be known and loved, but inside the disconnection, we believe anyone who truly knows us, really couldn’t love us.

So we hide.

And we work.

And we hide in our work.

And we work to hide.

In fact, we’ll do just about anything to cover ourselves, to make ourselves more presentable to the outside.

This is the world in which we live. It’s a pretentious and distorted world, crafted in the image of men.

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copyright 2007 Rilian

Once upon a time in a land a world away…
…there lived a king. The King was also a priest, and he carried out his duties as vassal for his Father, the Lord of the land. On behalf of his Father, the good King maintained order within the kingdom, collected praise to his Lord and protected the land from enemies.

The King walked confidently in the presence of his Father, who descended from His Throne at the land’s highest peek in order to fellowship with the noble King, the one who bore His image. And the King delighted in the Father and the Father in him. And the land enjoyed peace and prospered under the Lord’s protective covering and the rule of His regal son…

Wouldn’t it be nice if the story ended here? But you know it doesn’t. You know the story doesn’t end here because this… is your story.

Your story, didn’t follow the script, did it?

Once upon a time… I met this girl…

Once upon a time… I had my health…

Yes, yours is a familiar story. The truth is… every man has a once upon a time that didn’t work out as planned, a story that didn’t track the trajectory of its original intent.

Once upon a time didn’t work for Adam either, the man who wanted to “be as God, knowing good and evil.”

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked…

Once upon a time hasn’t worked out for you because you were born into a world that is light years removed from its original intent.

It was into this broken and disconnected world of Adam’s invitation that God spoke when he called out to the man, “Adam, where are you?”

Where are you… with God?

Not with your career. Not with your wife.

With God!

This is the first and best question you can ask yourself. Your answer turns the page to the next chapter of your story.

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copyright 2007 Rilian

Life looks very different…

…from outside its original intent.

Just ask Adam.

One day he was walking in the Garden. The next, he was banging on the door to What Might Have Been.

That’s a hard thing to do, to look in from the outside, disconnected from the place you call home.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever disconnected from the place you call home?

The consequences of Adam’s trajectory scorched his world. Weeds and thistles challenged his dominion. Terror and confusion populated his thoughts.

Somewhere in that space between the moment Adam’s eyes were opened and the time God’s voice filled his ears, Adam formulated a rebuttal to his predicament.

Adam used his “you time” to download defective programming to our shared DNA. You might recognize the code:

Denial: I’m not the problem here, it was the woman…

Desertion: I had a problem but then I took some and ate…

Adam wanted to be like God. He wanted to experience life as center. But man is not built to be center. He is not sufficient unto himself. Even the community he creates cannot fill the fellowship for which he was created.

This is the world outside the Garden; it is a broken and confused and twisted place.

A world disconnected from God.

It’s the world into which you were born… worlds away from its original intent.

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Copyright 2007 Rilian

“Where are you?”

It’s a question we ask ourselves all the time.

We point this question at our careers when we ask, “Where am I in the hierarchy? Am I making enough money? Am I making the right moves? Can the punk with the degree really take my place?”

In our quiet moments, we press this question against the deeper things in life.

“Where am I on the timeline? How much longer do I have? What am I going to do with the time I have left?”

Where are you… is a great question.

It’s also the first question God asks men in Scripture. It’s the opening volley in a tragic exchange between God and the crown of His creation.

[T]he Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

The question echoes from Eden into the deepest corners of our souls. We cannot escape the haunting melody that floats on these words. The question stalks us like a hunter into everything we do.

Once upon a time in a story larger than us, a man named Adam lost his way…

No, rewind that.

He didn’t just lose his way. He lost his Self.

And he’s been searching for the way home ever since.

Adam’s story is our story, the story into which we were born.

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Copyright 2007 Rilian Publishing

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