No more excuses!

Sometimes it seems like humankind is short on everything but excuses.

And we have those to spare.

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When it comes to that annual New Year's diet, for instance, I have been known as the king of excuses. Diet? I hate the very word. I've actually tried them all. Sugar-busters? Been there, done that. Atkins? Bacon, anyone? The Zone. Tried that one, too. South Beach? Haven't tried that, but it looks like another meat and cheese regimen to me – with a palm tree thrown in for effect.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that diets work. Some work surprisingly well. But the problem is staying on them. The very word says it all. DIET. As in "DIE." Deny yourself. Abstain.

We don't like to do that. Hence, the excuses.

But I don't like the alternative to diets very much, either. A scary profile. Tight pants. You find yourself tired more easily. You take a shower and nothing below your waist gets wet. You get your shoes shined and you have to take the guy's word for it. The couch gets up when you do. Kids run to you to stay in the shade. You find yourself suddenly developing a love of the color black as a fashion staple.

But there comes a point when even black cannot cover the realty. You have become a fat person – or are well on your way to becoming one. You might rationalize it by saying, "Well, there is just more of me to love now." Deep down, you know the truth.

But you're loaded with excuses.

We talk ourselves into bad behavior, don't we? Or why we don't do the right thing when we know we should. We all know what it's like to justify the wrong thing we are about to do with a clever excuse. You know the routine.

I know this is wrong, but everybody's doing it.
I will know when to stop.
I will quit tomorrow.
I'm not hurting anyone but myself.
I deserve this.

And on and on it goes. Excuse after pathetic excuse.

The first recorded excuse was made by the first man himself, Adam. You can read about him in Genesis, the very first book of the Bible. You talk about a guy who had it made in the shade! He was created by God and placed in pure paradise that would make Maui look like a parking lot. Adam was surrounded by intense, unimaginable beauty and splendor. No pollution, no discomfort, and best of all no death.

Adam's basic job description was to enjoy, watch over and discover all that God had made. Best of all, the Lord Himself would show up each and every day, and He and Adam would talk the events of the day over.

One day the Lord had Adam fall into a very deep sleep. When he awoke, there for the first time was that someone he had been searching for. He called her Eve. She was beautiful to behold and she became Adam's closest friend, second only to God Himself. You couldn't ask for a better life.

But God gave to Adam and his new bride a dangerous ability. They could choose to do right and even choose to do wrong. But why? "Why did not God just make Adam want to do the right thing and not give him the ability to choose?" Because God wanted voluntary love, not forced affection. Would you want someone to be your friend because they had to? Or because they wanted to? God is no different in that regard.

So, he gave to His two finest creations the ability to choose, and you probably know what they did. They ate of forbidden fruit. So, despite the fact that their best friend, God, told them not to do it, they took a small bite. They might have said, "It's really all right, because we won't ever do it again!" They wouldn't have to. One time would be enough. More then enough. We are still living with the ramifications of that little taste test to this very day. Aging, disease, death and, worst of all, separation from God Himself. It all came from the sin that began in a paradise.

Now instead of looking forward to his late afternoon with God, Adam shrunk from it. He'd had plenty of time to think about what he had done. That which was so exciting and intoxicating was now having its ultimate way. That dead, empty feeling was sinking in. Adam is experiencing something he has never known before. Guilt. Gnawing at him, giving him no rest.

God desired nothing short of a full-blown confession:

But the Bible records that Adam then offered up the first recorded excuse ever given by man. In many ways, it's the "Mother of all Whoppers" because it fails to acknowledge personal responsibility and then conveniently places the blame on another.

Instead of acknowledging his sin, Adam blamed it on his bride. It was Eve's fault! That woman You gave to be with me.

Yes, Eve had been deceived. But Adam, to his discredit, willfully and knowingly sinned. If that weren't bad enough, he had the audacity to actually blame God for it. He was in essence saying, "This is Your doing, Lord. It's the woman you gave me!"

Adam probably knew his excuse was lame and wouldn't fly. He knew it didn't cover him any better than that fig-leaf pair of shorts he'd patched together. But faced with hard truth, rather than dealing with it he tried to deflect it. With an excuse.

We can cheat on a diet and justify ourselves with a million "good reasons." Maybe we can even convince ourselves for a while. But sooner or later, the truth will show up. That half a pizza you scarfed, that half gallon of ice cream you consumed in one sitting will show up in the mirror, and after a while there's no hiding it.

There's no hiding from God, either. He can see right through the most clever of excuses, looking straight into the secret places of our hearts. Adam and Eve eventually faced up to their failures and got back on track with God again. Yes, they had a tough road ahead of them, but they had finally come clean with the only One who could help them put their lives together again.

Excuses keep us in a world of fantasy. Admitting the truth about our own lives may be hard to face at times, but ultimately, it will be the best thing that's ever happened to us.

Because truth always leads to its Author. And God will never fail you.