East of Eden

So this past week we looked at the life of Cain.  What intrigues me most about the story of Cain and Abel is not the details of the story, but rather Cain's response to the events.  His first response is to kill his brother.  Then when question by God he chooses to lie and attempt to cover up his previous sin.  Then after God's punishment, Cain shows no remorse, but instead focuses on his own self-pity.  In looking at this story we see mankind moving further and further from their Creator.  We're only in the 4th chapter of the Bible and the beginnings of the flood start in chapter 6.

The question that I spent most time pondering was "Why do we do this".  Why do we have the opportunity to have the greatest thing ever, a relationship with our Creator and why do we choose to put things between us and God?  I would say the central application is two-fold.  Firstly, what are you putting between your relationship with God?  Is it a relationship with someone else, is it money, is it mistrust, is it greed or glory, what do you place more important than God?  And secondly, why do you do that?  Is it a lack of faith, is it we feel God cannot provide so we must do it enough.  The beauty of the question is this, there is no acceptable answer to Why.  There is no answer we can say that will ever justify us putting stuff between us and God, but sometimes by understanding why we make these choices we can prevent ourselves from doing it in the future.