Its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master. Genesis 4:7 (TJSB)
Closer to Each Other – Keepers – Series 2 – Part 5
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Self-preservation verses connection is at the heart of the Cain and Abel story. Do we allow our passion, creative energies, possessions, lands, wealth, rights – all the things – to drive us closer to each other? Or further away?
When God said to Cain, “But if you do not do right, Sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master.” (Gen 4:7 TJSB), he wasn’t saying evil/sin/yuckiness/darkness waits to devour you… he was talking about raw, unadulterated passion. Our animal soul, our innate instincts.
In Hebrew, its called “Yetzer Hara.” It has the desire to be used by us; to give its power and energy to us. Without it, we would do nothing. We wouldn’t be moved to eat, sleep, work, play, have relationships, fix things, problem solve…
Our animal instincts and desires are benign until we give them direction.
“Its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master.”
We forget this part whenever we hear this story; that the Divine challenged Cain not to run from his sin, or to repent of it, or do anything differently other than this:
Master it.
Take ownership. Rule over it. Don't let it rule you.
Raw, unadulterated passion, our animal instincts, our inherent creative energy, was never meant to lead the way. It was always meant to be led.
Look; quotes about passion are a dime a dozen. And they’re all along these lines:
– Do it with passion or not at all.
– The most successful people follow passion, not paychecks.
– Life is nothing without passion.
And so on and so forth. And they’re all true! But we must also remember that passion is not a person, an entity, or a spirit. It is not our friend, boss, or parent. It is energy. And as the home of such an energy, it is our responsibility to allow our passion to fuel our lives in such a way that brings us closer to each other, not further apart. You and I are in the driver's seat, my friends.
Passion needs permission, whether you consciously give it or not. It will go where you lead it. “You can be its master.”
Cain loved the land. He loved his produce. But instead of allowing those things to be tools for connection, he became obsessed with preserving them. And when his offering was rejected – not because of what it was, but because of why he brought it (read previous devotions) – he couldn’t face his own failure and darkness. Abel became Cain's scapegoat and paid the price for Cain's unhinged passion.
After Abel was murdered, God asked Cain:
“Where is your brother?”
It wasn’t a question of geography. In Hebrew, the word used here is “Ayeh.” Someone uses this word for “where” when they are less interested in where something is than in why it is not here, where it ought to be. It was a question of why as much as where. Which really sets the perfect backdrop for Cain's response:
“I don’t know. Am I my brother's keeper?”
Our creative, passion-filled, energy needs to serve a purpose, or it will serve us a life of scapegoating, blaming, and pain. The thing is, Cain WAS his brother's keeper. We are all keepers. Every single one of us. By taking responsibility for ourselves and our desires, we take responsibility for how they impact others; the ripple effects our lives have in the world.
It is only when we dare to answer the question “why aren’t things as they should be?” by taking responsibility for our hand in the displacement, that true healing can begin.
It is only when we choose to see how intrinsically connected we are all, that we will quit the endless, heartless pursuit of self-preservation and live to deepen our connections with each other.
And any point in the journey all we have to do to reconnect is to choose between the two.
“Humanity is like an enormous spider web… As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with indifference, or with hostility, toward the people we meet, we too are setting the great spider web a-tremble. The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. Our lives are linked together. No man is an island.” Frederick Buechner. Listening to Your Life (pp. 139-140). Harper Collins.
Go to Twisted Disconnection – Keepers – Series 2 – Part 6
Written by Liz Milani
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