de-Centering Self

This msy be more around the bush than on the nail head, and as such take on the appearance of one of those old arcade games where the player stands before a console with a broad flat top into which has been cut nine(or is it twelve,) holes through which randomly, and with increasing frequency and abruptness as the game wears on, appears the target of the unwieldy hammer in the player's hand which is tethered to the console through an elictric cord by which the promptness and accuracy of attack is recorded in the console's scoring mechanism as to whether the gopher, frog, alien or whatever mascot has been designed into that particular console(and oft times even the correct hole) was swatted and swatted in a timely fashion.

Two cases in point:

Adam tended the Garden. In that Garden was that beautiful mal-fruited Tree. Adam tended that Tree. Eve was Adam's helper. When queried by Satan, Eve misstated "If I even so much as touch..." that tree.... Satan leapt fast and struck hard, sinking the fangs of deceipt deep, flushing now hapless Eve's fiber and soul with the toxin of self neediness promoting the senses of self focus, and self importance, and self aggrandizement. Eve's first sinful act was self deception, her sense of self preservation was involved. She overstated the facts. She misstated God's Word. God said tend the Garden--Do not eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Eve said what she said...responding with self contaminated scripture. Or was it Adam who countermanded God's word for the same reasons, that is not germain here. Animals were necessary to cover the reason for guilt.

Paul from a tradition of Excellence, Success and Discipline, when he was Saul, misunderstood the point, missapplied the devotion, mal-adapted his behaviour in such a way as to serve to disperse, disband and destroy God's new sons. He was carrying his inherited family honor and glory and tradition to new heights. He was gonna be somebody. He really was not intending to change his name...

We have to be still and quiet and focused to hear God's still small voice of devotion, development, and direction. This is a decentering and serves to decenter so that God may be the center not our whims.