Jon Gordon - The Garden - A Spiritual Fable About Ways to Overcome Fear, Anxiety, and Stress

“But why?” Jay blurted out as he looked at the forbidden tree. “Why does evil exist at all? I mean why did God even allow Adam and Eve to have a choice? Why couldn't it all just be good?”

“You just asked the question that the greatest thinkers, scholars, and theologians have asked since the beginning of time. I'm no scholar but I think God is the ultimate storyteller, and in every story, you must have conflict and struggle. You must have duality. Love and hate. Light and dark. Good and evil. Defeat and victory. You wouldn't know good without bad. You wouldn't know it was light unless you have experienced the dark.

“You're a moviemaker, Jay. Tell me what kind of movie would it be if the characters didn't make bad and good choices? Would there be any victory or triumph without struggle, conflict, and defeat along the way?”

“No,” said Jay emphatically. “There are key elements to every great story and the main character must make choices and evolve and we must see their transformation as they go through their struggle and face their conflict.”

“It's all about choices and transformation,” said Mr. Erwin. “At God's level there is no duality. It's all oneness. It's all love. It's all good. When he created our world, he created a world of duality in order to tell a story where we can make choices and have us experience and live out this story.

“To answer your question of why Adam and Eve were given a choice in the first place, they had to be given a choice. God had to create space for them to choose Him.”

Mr Erwin stopped for a moment then took a deep breath. He wanted the twins to truly grasp what he was about to say. He spoke a little slower, yet with more passion.

“Evil is the absence of God. This means that in the space between Man and God, evil exists. And this space is necessary because God had to give us a choice. He had to give us space to choose to love and obey Him. True love doesn't demand to be loved back. True love is freely given and the recipient is given a choice to love in return. If there was no choice and it was all good all the time, there would be no world, no story, and no us.”

It finally made sense to Jay. He said, “So there's a major narrative and story playing out on the movie screen of the universe and it is both the ultimate love story and epic battle between good and evil.”

“Yes,” responded Mr. Erwin. “Before there was Star Wars and Harry Potter there was God, Adam and Eve, and a serpent. And the story continues with us. God has a plan for our lives. He created us to be in partnership with Him. He made us in his likeness and image. He created us to live a life of goodness, love, and abundance. But then there is evil that exists in the space between us and God and it seeks to mislead us, to separate us from God, to destroy us, and to keep us from living the life God has created us to live.

“We have a choice,” said Kay. “I love that we have a choice. Life would be meaningless without it.”

“It is the ultimate choice, responded Mr. Erwin.You can choose to love and obey God and overcome evil with good or you can believe the lie and let evil win. It's a battle between good and evil and you are in the middle of it.”

“It's scary to know this,” said Kay.

“I agree,” said Mr. Erwin. “That's why it's not popular to talk about it. It's easier to ignore it, to pretend this isn't happening or be unmindful that it is happening. But when so many people, especially young people like you, are stressed, fearful, anxious, and even committing suicide, it's scarier not to talk about it. Look around and you'll see so many losing the battle. It's scarier to see all these people suffer, and they have no clue what's really going on and why they are really suffering. It's scarier to see so many clutter the problem with complexity by focusing on all the symptoms instead of understanding and focusing on the root cause. It's scarier to see so many losing a battle they have no idea they are in. If you don't know you are in a battle but your enemy does, you will surely lose.

“That's what's happening more frequently today. The battle has become more intense and is including more people, and they have no idea they are in a battle. So they are getting beat down on a daily basis. They think life is a playground but need to approach it like it's a battleground. When you know you are in a battle then you can win it. That's why I'm being so blunt about this.”

“How do you win the battle?” asked Jay. He felt like he was battling for his life every day at school and wanted to win for once.

“You have to know how the battle is being waged,” said Mr. Erwin. “That's why tomorrow I want to share with you the Five D's that evil uses to defeat you. Yesterday you asked how come Adam and Eve forgot who they were. I believe it's because evil used these Five D's to cause them to forget who they were and disobey God. These are the same Five D's evil continues to use to cause us to forget our identity so that evil can defeat us.

“In the story of Adam and Eve, evil uses a Serpent to be our enemy. In our story we face an enemy as well. Many call him the devil, but whatever you want to call him, he is crafty like the serpent and he has a plan to defeat you. I'm sharing these Five D's with you because they represent evil's only game plan to attack you. Once you know evil's game plan, you can counter it and win the battle.

“I am here to help you win the battle and once you do you will live the amazing life that God has for you.”

Chapter 5

Doubt

The next day Mr. Erwin was watering the trees in his garden with his crutches by his side when Kay and Jay arrived. It was extra hot for a fall morning but that didn't stop Kay from wearing a long-sleeved shirt. Jay's left eye was black and blue and he had a cut on his left knuckle. Mr. Erwin knew all too well that spiritual battles turn into physical battles. He wished he could go to school and deal with the boys messing with Jay, but just like with his own son, he knew Jay would have to fight his own battle and learn how to win in order to grow.

“What's the first D?” asked Kay. “Jay and I have been trying to figure it out all morning.”

Mr. Erwin smiled. He loved that they weren't scared but rather eager to learn the enemy's game plan. Because once they learned the Five D's, he would be able to teach them how to overcome them and win.

He said, “The first D is Doubt. The enemy begins his quest to defeat you by creating doubt that God can't be trusted. If you read the story of Adam and Eve, you'll see that when the serpent first started talking to Eve he asked, ‘Did God really say that you couldn't eat from all the trees in the Garden?’ The truth was that God said they couldn't eat from just that one tree. But by asking this question, the enemy was creating doubt in the mind of Eve that God can't be trusted, that He was withholding the best from them.

“Today the enemy plants seeds of doubt in our mind all the time. You see others doing well and thriving and you wonder why they are doing so well but you aren't. You see others achieve their dream while yours seems more like a fantasy than a reality. You see others having success and you feel like a failure. You wonder if God likes them more than you, and you begin to resent God and lose trust in Him. God gave Adam and Eve a choice and His central question of them and us is this: will you trust me? The enemy's main goal is to break this trust by creating doubt.”

Mr. Erwin placed the watering hose on the ground. “Is this making sense?” he asked as he wiped his hands on his pants to get the water and dirt off.

“I doubt myself all the time,” said Jay. “I don't think I'll ever make it as a musician or filmmaker. And I guess I doubt God for making me the way He did.” He looked at the cut on his hand, “Why do I have to be the one who is bullied?”