The tree of knowledge

Chapter nine - God's way

Welcome to God's way. I hope you are here to stay.

"Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.""

John 4:1-15

You and I notice that we also thirst for such living water. Eternal life where it is all well. Wait ... there is something familiar about this story. The old well, the willpower bucket, and the water we call moral. Pause ... Do you feel it too? That something in your chest? Spoken without words. Almost too precious and soft to be heard. Can you separate the ripe and tasty fruit, from the tasteless?

Moral according to faith is; 

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. 

In the weeds of evolution it is merely:

I want to do you well because it is beneficial for my survival.

Which is the sweetest? Evolution is tasteless. Like dust to our tongues.

"Friendemy", Bible verse after Bible verse may not align with your universe. Yet, you are here, and for that I am thankful. Research has uncovered that self-regulation is the greatest human strength. Something actually discovered when trying to map out the benefits of high self-esteem. Sadly disclosed to be a flop: 

Women in a weight reduction program were told to imagine different tempting scenarios, like walking by a delicious cake. Then, given the question if they would be able to resist the cake or fall into temptation and eat it. Those with high self-esteem were quite confident in the thought up scenario. "No problem," they said, "I will just walk straight by and not eat the cake". The group with low self-esteem envisioned not surprisingly having great difficulties withstanding the cake. Thinking they would probably end up eating it. Which group performed better in the program? The less confident were more likely to lose more weight and succeed. As it turns out, the confident women had a feeling that "already I am there,"and this was their downfall. (Study by Garbriele Oettingen).

Many studies support these findings, and Ray Baumeister has quite conclusively proven that high self-esteem has no benefits on its own. Self-regulation and performance based on this leads to self-esteem that is prosperous. It does not work the other way around. So believing and trusting ourselves without earning it is not a helpful trait.