After a few moments of thought, in response to an online podcast1, I’m contemplating my own “cis-Gardenness” and inviting you, too, to become “cis-Gardened.”
Curious over the discussion of the adjective (or possibly prefix or possibly noun or verb…who really knows these days) word “cis” — out of morbid curiosity, I looked up its etymology. The word “cis” derives from Latin, meaning “on this side of.” And it sits in opposition to “on the other side of.”
Hmm…
So. Let me see if I can use the term correctly: I am “cis-Gardened.”2
What does that even mean, you might ask?
Good question.
Being cis-Gardened means that I am on the side of God’s original intent for the beautiful garden (of Eden)– the world, universe and especially the relationships He originally intended. While one might reframe this as being “pro” Garden, perhaps these days re-stating that one is “cis-Gardened” is called for. (hear the melodic uptalk inflection at the end of my statement).
To be cis-Gardened means that my starting point is that the one, true Creator God created all that is, and, He created me. Ahh…for a moment, let’s identify the one true Creator God as “cis-God’d.”3 (Bear with me on this).
God Himself is “on His own side” — as opposed to being “on the other side of” Himself. (I know it is complicated but…)
The One True Creator God, after creating the universe, the earth, the sun, moon, starts, the rivers and oceans, the beautiful vegetation, the animals and every living thing that creeps upon our beautiful planet, found Himself alone. So, He created man (or, mankind, or, humankind). He also knew and empathized that it was not good for one to be alone (although within His own triune being was always self-sufficient and “on His own side” — His eternal and perfect nature not needing any other being to externally affirm or otherwise help create or morph Him or His identify, per se…) so, therefore, He also created a biological woman from that biological man, so that together, man and woman would also not be alone.
This is an excitingly “cis-Gardened” agenda! This “cis-God” (being on His own side and now, on the side of Adam and Eve) enjoyed beautiful relationship with His beautiful creatures and creation itself! He even told them, that it was so good that the “cis-man” and “cis-woman” should be fruitful and multiply.
Not.
(I mean, He did tell them to be fruitful and multiply, but since “cis” is not really a thing, calling them “cis-whatever” would have been not only unnecessary, but linguistically strange and confusing.)
Anyway, back to me contemplating being “cis-Gardened.”
The One True Creator God told the first man and woman to keep themselves “cis-relationed, cis-commandment-followers.” OK, let me translate here. God told Adam and Eve to keep “on the side” of Shalom. Shalom, essentially, means all that God intended for them and His good and beautiful creation--I like to summarize as all that is good, right and holy in the world.
He warned them not to transgress. That is, not to become “trans-Garden” (“on the other side of” the Garden…i.e…“East of Eden” or worse…“South of Eden….”)
“For in that day, you will surely die.”
Genesis 2:17
Yet, together, these two became deceived. They decided they did not want to remain “cis-Gardened” or “cis-God’d” (“on the side of”) the fullness of all the life, beauty and blessings their good, holy, beautiful, perfect, righteous and all-knowing Creator had intended for them. They decided they wanted to be “trans-Gardened” and thus, this is how every evil, wicked, horrific, violent and destructive, death-oriented thing entered God’s creation and all relationships, starting first and foremost with the relationship between God and man. They got their wish. And in my mind, for a moment, I consider echoes of the powerful words that God Himself, in the fulness of time, spoke from the Cross: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
No longer were Adam and Eve “cis-God’d…” (on the side of God) and no longer were their offspring. One of the first evidences of this is when their son Cain slew his brother, Abel, and like his parents who were banished in to “the other side” of Eden and the Tree of Life, Cain too, was expelled from wherever they now resided even further into the East of Eden locale.
But back to Adam and his helpmate-wife-life-partner, Eve. Since God Himself never changes, He remained “cis-God’d” and He even covered their exposed nakedness and shame (some will understand this meaning, others may need to explore further…for proper understanding…) and determined a plan of redemption to bring them back to being on His side, and He on their side. (see especially Roman 8: 31-39)
This “cis-God-cis-Garden” imprint in the heart, mind and soul of all people is that longing to be “cis-Gardened.” It is that gaping hole of brokenness in which we see the immense sufferings and piercings of this terribly broken (yet still terribly beautiful) world and long for things to be right-side-up, rather than so terribly upside-down and broken.
We long for “cis-Gardening” but of course, that requires us to get back to becoming “cis-Gardened.” That is, to be on the side of all that is good, right and holy in this world. And the only way we can do that, is to repent of being “trans-Gardened” and to submit ourselves not to our own deadened understandings (that bring death and not life) but to the Pruning Hand of the Master Gardener Himself.
If you’ve read to this point, you might be thinking, “why insert this term ‘cis’ into all of this? Why not just speak in clear terms? Why change language that has always been very clear and understandable? What is your point, or agenda here?”
Well, that’s a good question. And I will leave that to the reader to discern and interpret. And I will leave you with a traditional hymn about being “cis-Gardened” and another beautiful poetical expression called “The Creation,” by James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist.
Thanks for bearing with this somewhat non-sensical writing here.
Shalom.
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King?
Author: Frances R. Havergal (1877)
1. Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King?
Who will be His helpers, other lives to bring?
Who will leave the world’s side? Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who for Him will go?
By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
2. Not for weight of glory, nor for crown and palm,
Enter we the army, raise the warrior psalm;
But for love that claimeth lives for whom He died:
He whom Jesus saveth marches on His side.
By Thy love constraining, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
3. Jesus, Thou hast bought us, not with gold or gem,
But with Thine own lifeblood, for Thy diadem;
With Thy blessing filling each who comes to Thee,
Thou hast made us willing, Thou hast made us free.
By Thy grand redemption, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
4. Fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the foe,
But the King’s own army none can overthrow;
’Round His standard ranging, vict’ry is secure,
For His truth unchanging makes the triumph sure.
Joyfully enlisting, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
5. Chosen to be soldiers, in an alien land,
Chosen, called, and faithful, for our Captain’s band;
In the service royal, let us not grow cold,
Let us be right loyal, noble, true and bold.
Master, wilt Thou keep us, by Thy grace divine,
Always on the Lord’s side—Savior, always Thine!
The Creation
1871 – 1938
And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That’s good!
Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That’s good!
Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas—
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed—
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled—
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.
Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That’s good!
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I’m lonely still.
Then God sat down—
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
__________
1-3On the off-chance you may think that “cis-Gardened” and “cis-God’d” aren’t actually meaningful words in the English language, you are not off base! “Cis” anything in the context of today’s cultural revolution and intentional dismantling, destruction of all that is good right and holy in this world is about as meaningful and unnecessarily confusing as the coining of the terms into the English language of ze/hir and ze/zir. These are throw-away terms but behind them, is agenda. I hope that this conceptual writing helps readers to understand that I, too, could use the term “cis” to construct ideology. Only as I use and intend here, my point is to show in bold relief the traditional, biblical worldview (through momentarily using the idea of the “cis” lens) and how what we are now witnessing is a radical departure from not only nature itself and what it inherently means to be human, but a radical departure from all that is truly life-giving. We are being asked to lie on the behalf of others–to allow ourselves to be used as tools to attest and create/construct something that is nothing on behalf of others. I recently listened to this talk Pronouns: why we should not play along which I highly recommend. And the podcast that prompted this writing which I began listening to this morning is this one, Therapy Will Make Your Kids Worse.
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