The Ground That Works Against You

God made ‘adam from the ground to steward the ground. But at the fall, God turned to the man and said stunning words, “The ground is cursed because of you.” The problem of the Fall hit the man at the essence from which he was made and the heart of the good work God had called him to do. God created him to sweep, but now his broom was broken. The weeds that strangle crops on our farm aren’t simply symbolic of the problems of life in a fallen world. They are essential to the curse. The crop-duster on our farm signifies the fight, the war for the resources of the ground, the fight for harvest. It is the war that has continuously existed since the Fall of Man. Understanding the literal fight on the ground for harvest is helpful to understanding the widespread problems of the Fall of Man—how the ground works against every ‘adam in the very work God has created them to do. We must understand the nature of this insidious problem to understand evangelicalism’s own propensity to war over cultivation. The curse of the ground is why warrior masculinity invaded evangelicalism to the loss of God’s Edenic vision for tending and cultivation.