The story of The Fall in Genesis 3 is a story of the kind of betrayal that happens when grace-filled attachment ceases to be our primary guidance system for life.

Ever wonder where addictions are in the Bible? Check out Genesis 3! The first couple exploited the things God intended to be used for pleasure (trees, leaves, the garden and each other) and used them to hide, cover shame, and then blamed others for the problem. Things haven’t changed much in many thousands of years!

Attachment is the central organizing principle of the brain. We’re born with billions of neurons in our developing brain – and connections with other people guide the trillions of connections of interactions between those neurons. Grace-based, joyful attachments with others optimize these connections.

Jesus: “If you should be loving me, you will be keeping my precepts.” (John 14:15, Concordant Literal New Testament.

Grace means that you and I are special and favorite to God without having to earn it. In other words, we are God’s favorites – and so is everyone else.

Grace, understood for all its fullness, is nothing if not relational. It’s rarely experienced when combing the dusty shelves of theological libraries compiled over centuries by post-Reformation scholars. In its most profound form, grace is a relational truth you and I experience (or don’t) in the context of our face-to-face interactions with others.

Grace is the glue of healthy, life-giving connections with God and with others. It is foundational to the creation of deep and enduring attachments that help us grow increasingly secure in love.

To become a disciple isn’t something you and I drift into. It is Someone we attach to.

When we operate out of fear, our identity and behavior get “stuck”—miring us in compromise and false religion.