Difficulty Undefined

We are incapable of understanding what life was like before the fall.

Protection was unnecessary in the Garden of Eden

We have found it necessary to create walls everywhere that we hide behind to survive.

We are so used to these walls that we accept them as normal.

They are consequences of sin, of the fall of man.

We have to work to produce what it takes to live, to just keep everything from degrading.

A Broken World

• Nothing lasts

No lasting fulfillment can be found in a broken world where everything, absolutely everything, fails.

• Perspective for today

Every time we experience any sort of difficulty or physical or relational pain, it is a result of the fall.

To Recreate the Garden of Eden

We naturally find ourselves trying to make things right that we see as wrong.

We frantically work to surround ourselves with that which gives us temporary peace.

To Slow Aging

It is a fight against a broken world, an attempt to create a bit of heaven on earth.

Medicating the pain of failure

Balancing worldly and spiritual focus

No matter the energy one puts into being healthy,

nature and the world's corruption eventually take their toll on the flesh.

we do well to extend our healthy life as much as we can

and make it fruitful in order to minister God's love to others.

Both the pursuit of pleasure-seeking to recreate the Garden of Eden

 and the avoidance of pain can take our eyes off God's goal for us.

Living in the broken world

  "Until a person identifies that they will die, they do not start to live."

A person who neglects self-care is not only limited in meeting the needs of others,

 but forces others by default to take care of them.

An indicator of a person's priorities is considering

what they spend most of their time thinking about.

Some Find Fulfillment Despite Brokenness