The following are my favorite notes from Jon Gordon's The Garden: A Spiritual Fable About Ways to Overcome Fear, Anxiety, and Stress.
- It didn't matter what challenges and situations they were facing. Whatever the challenge was it was just a symptom, a symptom of a deeper cause. Humans experience many different symptoms, such as addictions, fears, stress, anxiety, insecurity, and destructive behavior that are all tied to one root cause. The key was to help people understand and heal the cause of the symptom and the symptom would disappear.
- It is the ultimate choice. You can choose to love and obey God and overcome evil with good or you can believe the lie and let evil win again. It's a battle between good and evil and you are in the middle of it.
- The 5 Ds:
- Doubt
- Distort
- Discourage
- Distract
- Divide
- Remember, God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from all the trees of the Garden. But what did the serpent do? He was able to create doubt that God can't be trusted and as a result got them to focus instead on the one tree they couldn't eat from. God provided abundance and the enemy was able to get them to focus on what they lacked.
- We don't give up because it's hard, we give up because we get discouraged. The enemy lies to us so that we will make a bad choice or so that we will get discouraged and give up. And in many cases the bad choices come first, we get discouraged by the outcomes our choices produce and we give up as a result. The enemy doesn't beat us. Through the lies we believe, he gets us to beat ourselves.
- The enemy uses distractions all the time to catch our attention and lead us away from what matters most. In the story of Adam and Eve it says that the fruit was pleasing to the eye and desirable. It looked good and she wanted it so Eve ate the fruit first and then gave it to Adam to eat and he ate as well. The enemy is a master of distraction and getting our attention with things that are pleasing to the eye and desirable but distract us from what matters most.
- The day we die it won't matter what kind of car we drive, how big our house is, how much money we have in the bank. What will matter is did we live the life God created us to live? Did we develop great relationships? Did we make a difference in the lives of others?
- If it's not helping you become all God created you to be, then it's the wrong thing. And sometimes the wrong thing isn't even a bad thing. There's a saying, "If the devil won't make you bad, he'll make you busy." He'll get you to focus on all the things that don't matter instead of what does matter. You may not do drugs, commit adultery, or hurt someone, but you may spend way too much time on social media, binge watching TV, or stay in an unhealthy relationship.
- That's what evil does. It divides in order to defeat.
- Evil is causing many to look at what makes them different instead of what they have in common. When you look at the world's problems, so many believe the lie that they are separate from each other when actually we are all one. The soul doesn't know nationality or religion or skin color. The soul knows oneness and love.
- It's a spiritual battle and the enemy uses the Five D's to win the battle against God and us. When we lose this battle, it leads to the sixty D. In a marriage, the sixth D is Divorce. In a person, the sixth D is Destruction. In a team, the sixth D is Defeat.
- You made a choice and you must make the right one each time. This is how you win the battle.
- Find your identity in God, not in what others think or say about you. Also, don't let you identity be defined by the world or what the world can provide you.
- Don't worry about your greatness in the future. Just be great today. God will take care of the outcome.
