16 Days of 31: Falling In The Gap

I love to study the creation story in Genesis. The dynamics of that time set a generational chain reaction in motion that hasn’t stopped, nor will be stopped until the rapture.

The Beginning

There’s so much depth to the connection of Adam and Eve. As children, we’re taught a simple illustration of two people happily skipping through the garden until that nasty old serpent tricked Eve into taking a chomp out of the fruit.

I guess in a nutshell, that’s true, but what intrigues me is that although Adam proclaimed she was “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,” when it came temptation time, Adam wasn’t off riding some lion around paradise.

As the devil convinced Eve to take the bite, her husband was right there. And he bit it too. Now in defense of Eve, she hadn’t even been created at the time God instructed Adam to eat of everything but that tree. So, I’m guessing, he kinda messed up in sharing God’s word.

And…

If you’re still with me, I know you’re thinking, yeah, but what’s this got to do with your day 16 of 31. Well you see, every morning Leah and I pray. Okay, let me be more accurate. We make morning prayers our priority, but when the kids are heading off to school in two different counties and we’re their courtesy Uber drivers, sometimes we don’t start the day that way.

Today was one of those days. But, the moment we met back at home, my spirit felt an empty tug to be filled by prayer. Instead, I failed to take the initiative to share God’s word. I went to my office and started working instead.

See, we’ve not progressed too far beyond that fateful day when mankind fell because of temptation. We’re disobedient and willful. Of course, God allows us free will so that we do have a choice. Otherwise, how could we actually show love if we didn’t have the choice to not show love?

Gap

Throughout the day, there was a disconnection in our spirits. For me, the temptations that become my forbidden fruit are self-doubts, wanting to fall into regrets over past life decisions or guilt wondering if I tried hard enough for this or that.

Leah and I have a naked marriage (okay, not that crazy stuff) by focusing on transparency, accountability and prioritizing each other. So instead of talking to her about some of these things that are really dragging a spiritual body bag over me throughout the day, I remained quiet and isolated in my office.

The gap that stopped me from opening up to her was the failure, actually the refusal to pray with her on our second opportunity. It wasn’t the missed prayers that caused the separation, it was the willful disobedience to God’s prompting to stop what we were both doing and pray together.

Our two wasn’t one this morning. It’s no different from what happened back in Eden. Although Adam was physically there with Eve as she was under spiritual attack, he wasn’t “there” for her. Who knows, maybe his thoughts were on work deadlines, breakfast, or whether or not the puppy had gone to potty.

Correction

But whatever it was that created the gap, his duty to lead his wife as the spiritual head of the household wasn’t fulfilled. In the spiritual gap that pried the one back into two, both became vulnerable.

That’s where I was on this 16th day of 31 days. But, thanks to the restoration through Christ, I’m blessed with an opportunity to do better the next time. Although we spent the day in physical proximity together, we were not one. Tomorrow will be different!

Do Good,

Scott Silverii