Ignorance Was Bliss
“Ignorance is bliss”…a worn out cliche, but an old saying that has some truth to it. We often think of this in terms of laughing something off or trying not to take something too seriously. But I’m finding it playing itself out in my life for real lately.
Have you ever thought about what it may have been like for Adam and Eve way back when? According to Genesis, they began their existence in paradise…absolute perfection…just as God had intended all things to be. They were living the high life. They would have no life experiences that would educate them on the “hard knocks of life”. A perfect life is all they knew.
Then it happened. Imperfection entered the human experience. The first humans were first deceived and then chose to disregard God and His command. They ate from that tree even though God told them not to. From that moment on, they would live in paradise lost. From that moment on, they would live in the same fallen and imperfect world that you and I live.
Now here’s the part that really gets me about all that. This fallen world is all I’ve ever known. Its the only kind of world I’ve ever experienced. I can only imagine what an absolutely perfect paradise may look, feel, smell, and sound like. But Adam and Eve had now experienced both. They were now stuck in the imperfect having a clear memory of what it was like “in the good old days”. Can you imagine what kind of struggle that would cause you? How you would beat yourself up knowing full well what you had forfeited? I suspect that the remainder of their days on earth had at least a shadow of torture mixed in because they were no longer ignorant of “the other side”. They knew, by experience, both perfection and depravity.
As I said before, all I have ever known is this hurting world we live in. But I’ve recently experienced something kind of opposite from what the first humans did. Through some major mistakes in my life…through some bad choices…through some pain…through God’s intervention…through some serious personal examination and work…I have a glimpse of another way.
For forty years I lived my life according to what I believed was my reality. What I have learned is that much of that so called reality was based on lies. Lies that I had convinced myself were true. In my ignorance, I was unaware of what possibilities may lie on the other side. In my ignorance, I didn’t fully realize how fallen my fallen world really was. Ignorance was bliss.
However, now, I’ve seen what is possible in my life. My next forty years don’t have to look like, feel like, sound like, or turn out like my first forty. I am able to see how different my relationship with God can be. I am able to see how incredible my relationship with my wife can be. I can see how strong my role as a dad can be. I can see how every area of my life can be transformed.
And yet…its not…not yet. I still find myself thinking according to those old ways. I still react according to those tired old lies. I still do the very things I don’t want to do. The difference is that today it bothers me. It bothers me because I know there’s another way of living. I know that new and different things are possible. I can see them. I can taste them. Ignorance was bliss.
But I’m going to keep letting God move my dirt. Its hurting, but He can keep striking the hoe to my heart. I’m going to the other side and when I get there, I’ll know for the first time what bliss really is.
