"Even the dust with which humanity was created, derived their existence from God..."
"When we seek a different identity derived from anything other than God, we don't actually become different but only return to the nothingness we were before God created our lives. This is what gathers in the pews of church every Sunday--creatures who believed the serpent's lie that their identity could be changed by reaching for something other than what they were given by the Creator. Some believed they could get a different, preferred identity if they only got married. Others thought they just needed to find a better job or buy a better home in order to have a better life. Still others cling not to dreams but to the hurts of yesterday--as if they could improve the past by holding it so tightly. And all that the reach for a different source to their identity has left them with is souls filled with the primordial nothingness. Having grown exhausted reaching for a preferred self, many just give up and settle for busy or comfortable distractions that numb the emptiness of their souls.
The Christian hope claims that God would not settle so easily... we recover the life we were created to enjoy (Eph. 1:3-14)." p.9
From Barnes' The Pastor as Minor Poet
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