23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Did you notice the subtle shift in this verse? Adam is sent out to take care of the garden, the dirt, from which he was made. His job had been to rule over the other creatures. Now he must work the ground, the very stuff he was made from. He just got his first demotion! We had been the CEO, now he is the guy who picks up the cigarette butts in the parking lot. He went from making six figures with hefty bonuses and stock options, to making minimum wage with no benefits. I was demoted one time in my life, at least, that is the one I remember. There might be other times, but I choose to block them out! I was a trumpet player in the Army Band when I was 20, a long time ago. I was the lead trumpet. I had the highest and hardest parts. We had a jazz ensemble that frequently played concerts as part of our normal public relations duties. We were having a rehearsal and the band director kept turning up the microphones on the saxophones, making them louder. Each time he did that he said we needed to play louder because he couldn’t hear the trumpet section. Of course we didn’t have microphones! After the third or fourth time, I had had enough. I put my trumpet down and refused to play. I told him that he either had to turn the microphones down or I was not going to play anymore, that balance was not achieved by continuing to get louder, but by working toward balance. Needless to say, I got fired from that position. I became the last chair trumpet player, playing third part, the lowest and easiest. There was no challenge at all to these parts. I now had fewer rehearsals to attend and fewer responsibilities. At the time I was mad, rip roaring mad. But I came to see it as a blessing. I got paid the same amount, but now I didn’t have to fight with the director. Of course I had lost my voice, my say in how things went, but I gained some freedom. Adam lost all the benefits of the Garden and gained only toil and sweat. When we choose sin we give up all the benefits and gain only the liabilities. But when we are making that choice, we almost never think about the negative consequences, and the negative always outweighs the positives.
The Arnold Journey 