1. I think I’m right a lot. I’m a pretty thoughtful person. I think things through quite a bit before letting something out of my mouth, and my opinions and ideas are sharpened by the criticism of some great friends. When I say something, I believe it. And when I say nothing, it’s because I do not have enough information to make and informed comment.

    Well… That’s what’s in my head at least. But  the reality is I am wrong more often than I am right. And ever when I am right, there is always someone who is more right than myself. What’s worse, even when I make a correct judgment, I often cause problems despite being correct.

    Human beings are born with a strange propensity for feeling as though they ought to be the one running things. Even when it is demonstrated clearly to use that we are not good at making decisions for others, we continue to run our mouths and make authoritative claims.

    When I used to work as a sales associate at Wal-Mart I noticed that there was one topic that dominated about 90% of the discussion in the break room – that the management was wrong, and the associate was right. Sometimes the associate was correct in this determination, and other times their opinion was just loony. But the associates always argued their case with passion and absolute certainty, regardless of whether the issue was subjective or note.

    As is a usual theme in Genesis, chapter 3 warns us about this dangerous tendency ingrained in our nature. The primary lure used by the serpent in attracting Adam and Eve to the fruit is the promise of being like God.

    Note that Adam and Eve were very much rulers of the Earth. As we discussed in a previous article, the Lord had entrusted the whole of the Earth, his entire creation, to these two lowly humans. As far as we can tell, they did a bang-up job. All the animals were named, the fields were tilled, and they lived happy lives serving their Lord.

    Yet, despite being given the ultimate management position – supreme-ruler-of everything-everywhere-that-ever-was… ever – they could not help but assume there were somethings that they could do better than God.

    Clearly, there was a lot they didn’t know about God’s job. After all, they didn’t even know what good and evil was (Genesis 3:5,22), nor did they clearly understand the nature of things (Genesis 5:6). But they did not let this obvious ignorance stop them from assuming they were right, and God was wrong.

    This is another great example brought to us in Genesis that we so often ignore. The human mind is surprisingly feeble, able to be utterly broken by things such as family tragedy, bad relationships, and even financial lost. How is it, then, that we think we have the intellect to surpass those around us?

    When we assume that we are the rightful leaders, we assume that God has not set our place in the universe correctly. We imply that we belong in another place, another time, or another position, and that God has somehow missed some part of our personality or ability. This is the ultimate narcissism.

    We thank God for his benevolence, not curse him for disallowing us from having his power. Yet we curse our leaders for their position and lament that we aren’t like them. How foolish of us to not see the obvious hipocrisy in this!

    The Bible is filled with great people who fell because they were not content (2 Kings 14:10, for example). Still, we ignore the mistakes of those greater than us. We even ignore the folly of the two most perfect humans ever to live (with the exception of Jesus).

    Let’s take the hint.

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