The Silence of Adam

I just finished reading The Silence of Adam by Larry Crabb. After I finished it, I picked myself up off the floor and wiped the blood from my mouth. I shouted, "Larry! Take it easy, man!" Then I limped off. I've been pissed at Larry all week. 

Gosh... it is SO good. I know the cover screams mid-late 90's, and its by Larry Crabb who isn't in a Nooma or anything. Even so, this book has worked me over. I want to say its changed my life, but I reckon I can't say that too prematurely. I suppose it has simply turned my thinking upside down and caused me to realize that I am at the very beginning of a long, dark journey towards becoming a man. 

I always have people say to me, "You sure do act older than 23." (I actually just turned 24, but no one has said "You sure act older than 24." Maybe, I finally caught up.) However, I have realized that I have been covered by the grand facade. I'm so far from being a MAN, and if you think that its easy to announce that to all of cyberworld, you're wrong. 

Here's the main idea of the book. Crabb writes about Eve being tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. There's this whole conversation with back and forth dialogue. Eve resists, but the cunning serpent strikes into her soul as she gives into her desire to be equal to God. 

Now, when I was 4 I heard this story and male chauvinism already started to fester:

"That shtupid girl took that apple to adam, and and and he was fishiiin' and and she made him think that it was good and shtuff and he ate iiiiit and and and then he wealized that she could see his pwivates." 

But Crabb illuminates the truth of the passage. If you look again, the text says that she turned and offered some to her husband who was with her! Adam new that the fruit would lead to death. The Bible says that God told ADAM not to eat from the tree. If he had been a man, he would've spoken up and chased the stupid snake away (By the way, I think this is why boys still like to kill snakes. We're trying to make up for what we should've done a long time ago. This is also why we go and tell girls the stories afterwards.) Adam should have defended Eve. Since then, men have struggled with the silence of Adam. 

See, God spoke beauty and order into creation. In the beginning He hovered over the waters in a formless and void expanse of nothingness. When he SPOKE there was 1) beauty and 2) order. If men were created in His image, then our primary responsibility is to speak beauty and order into a dark and chaotic world. 

My friends, look... if ya got a wife and/or a kid, please read this book. It's incredible. 

But get ready to feel like Larry Crabb just kicked ya in the pwivates.