It's All Very Good

Jul 19
21:00

2002

Michael D. Pollock

Michael D. Pollock

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So there they were. ... of years ago. Walking aboutthe Garden of Eden in complete freedom. Naked and ... It was ... ... The word Eden ... with ... and is rela

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So there they were. Thousands of years ago. Walking about
the Garden of Eden in complete freedom. Naked and
unashamed. It was Paradise. Literally. The word Eden is
synonymous with "paradise" and is related to a Hebrew word
meaning "bliss" or "delight."

If you remember this Bible story,It's All Very Good Articles you know that God had
just previously - over a seven day period - created the
entire universe. Everything. Including man, who was created
on the sixth day.

At the end of the sixth day, God gazed upon all that had
been created and deemed it ALL to be simply and completely
. . .

V-E-R-Y G-O-O-D.

All was well in the Garden until that one fateful moment,
when, in an instant, mankind stepped out of it's blissful
state of paradise into a world split down the middle. At
one end lie "goodness." At the other end lie "evil-ness."

SIDEBAR: This is a bit confusing. Didn't God say everything
was very good? How could there even be "evil" at this
point? And if there was "evil," wouldn't God have created
that? And if God did create it, wouldn't it also be "very
good" just like everything else?

Back to our story . . .

How did the split between good and evil occur? Simple.
Mankind chose, against God's better advice, to eat the
fruit from the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil."

Said another way, mankind chose to know "good" and "evil."
Mankind chose to put itself in a place of judgment between
what was good and what was not good.

Most of us make that choice - the choice to know "good"
and "bad" each and every day.

Each day, we're choosing to know good and evil or good and
bad. And each time we make that choice, we step out of
bliss and paradise.

Judgment itself is not good or bad. It just is. It serves
a useful purpose in society as it's currently structured.
But if you want to get back to bliss and paradise, it can
serve as quite an obstacle.

So what does all this have to do with you and your life?

Stick with me here.

I have a client in London who buys run-down houses, fixes
them up and sells them for more than she paid for them.
She literally causes the value of the property to
appreciate (important word).

She takes what the Universe offers - a "dumpy" house - and
she appreciates it. When she's done appreciating it, she
gives it back to the Universe for someone else to
appreciate even more (or not).

What does she get out of her appreciation?

Several things.

First and most apparent, she gets the financial profit.

Second, she gets the joy of expressing her creativity in
reconditioning the house.

Third, she gets to connect and collaborate with other human
beings who help her fix up the property.

Fourth, she gets the learning from the whole experience,
which she can use in her future endeavors.

In general, she gets the fulfillment of living a life
filled with peace, freedom, joy, abundance, exuberant
creativity and collaboration, which happens to be her
stated Life Purpose.

All by accepting and appreciating a "dumpy house."

She could just as easily have judged that "dumpy house" as
"bad" or "worthless," and thereby miss out on all the
prosperity she received from accepting it.

Unlike Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, she chose NOT
to eat from "The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" as it
relates to the "dumpy house."

She chose, instead, to embrace what the Universe offered.
Further, she chose to appreciate what the Universe offered.
Finally, when she was done appreciating it, she gave it
back to the Universe.

My suggestion is this.

God (whatever or whoever you believe that to be) did, in
fact, create everything. Every thing. And it's all very
good. Everything. Even war, famine, plague, death, drugs
and taxes. All the things we tend to judge as "bad" as well
as those things we tend to judge as "good."

You can continue to judge things as "good" or "bad" if
you choose. You can continue to eat from "The Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil." Just know that each time you
do, you step out of paradise. You step out of bliss. You
leave the comforting presence of God.

The other option is you can choose to embrace whatever the
Universe offers and find a way to appreciate it. Make it
more valuable to yourself and others. When you're done
appreciating it, simply offer it back to the Universe to
do with what It will.

Embrace everything. Appreciate it. Give it back. Because
it's all "very good."

It's Your Life! Make it Great.