their choice. and ours

I eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil everyday.

Some things never change. It appears so attractive and good, yet it leaves a bitter taste long after it's swallowed.

Instead of choosing between life and death, I decide to choose between right and wrong. I constantly "discern" and judge and evaluate in my mind each person and each scenario around me.

The devil is the accuser. But has the accuser gotten into my head? Into all of our heads?

As I constantly judge between right and wrong, good and bad (instead of life and death), I can feel the accuser inside my head. I judge.

Often I judge others. Even more often, I judge myself. There is this constant evaluation game, constant judgements, that weigh how much I, and everyone else around me, are worth. That's the devil's game. He started the game of "knowledge of good and evil" way back when, and he still plays that same game today. Ours is a world of ceaseless evaluation and judgement, of ranking and competition.

We even rope God into this game. He is "constantly sizing us up," constantly evaluating. He's a scorekeeper. Even within the Church, God as judge rivals God as Love.

Now, I understand that one day He will judge. And, He will judge rightly. But honestly, have we made Him out as a judge that often feels more like Accuser?

The devil has always wanted to be God. He's always wanted to be worshiped as God. Have we actually confused the accuser with God? Have we given the devil his wish and made him and his accusations as "god" in our heads? Have we put the devil and his judgement game in the place of God?

We were warned about the dangers of that tree. But we still choose the knowledge of good and evil. We still choose to judge. We still choose to compete for our worth instead of knowing that it is freely given to us by our loving Father.

The choice is still there. The choice between the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Life or judgement?

And I eat...