The Beginning of Evil

"The beginning of evil is the absence of God, sin cannot be in His presence". These are the wise words spoken by my friend Jason Palm. These words ring true because as feeling beings, sensitive to our environment and the humans we share time and space with, we know, we just plain old know when evil lurks, and, given the right circumstances, we fall in line with the devil's script and cues for behavior. Or more aptly put, cues for reaction. Consider Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. I love the arguments against God's existence; they entertain me. I remember watching my girlfriend's son for her after school many years ago. While sitting on the front porch, the little boy killed a rather large ant, squishing it under foot. I stated that he had killed the ant, letting him know that he had taken a life. His response was "no I didn't, no I didn't, look!" He poured water on the ant in an attempt to revive it, bring it back to its former-hard working search the world for food-self. We all know how that turned out. The ant lay lifeless, without spirit. Whatever enlivened the ant prior to the shoe assault was now missing in action, meaning that though body remained, action was no longer possible. Dead is dead and what this really means is lifeless. Yes, here I equate life with spirit, and why not? So let us elevate our thinking and accept that something within us moves us, gives us life force, energy, spirit. A dictionary definition of spirit is the non-physical part of a person, which is the seat of emotions and character; the soul. If spirit moves us, and I would argue it does, and it is the seat of emotions and character, it can express itself. Deny God, deny spirit and my argument falls flat. If you are grimacing at my argument, move along now, because the rest of it will not make sense to you either. The universal theme of good verses evil moves us constantly and sells many a movie ticket and novel of intrigue. It is the stuff of greatness and extreme pain, undeniably evident, just turn on the news. Kindness, mercy, love, forgiveness, these are the admirable traits of the spirit. Avarice, hate, jealousy, rage, these are the grimy, slimy admonishable traits of the spirit. We are, as humans, capable of all of these and many more. What my friend Jason pointed to in his wise statement is that evil exists and is separate from God and when we indulge in one set of traits over the other, we invite Gods presence (or perhaps He allows us in His), working through us, or we drive Him far and fast away from us, repelled by our evil indulgence. The devil made me do it, I laugh at this because there appears to be a hint of truth in the joke, and while accountability is our burden and gift in life, unseen forces are pressing in on all sides making them palpable and real. In my argument, God is good and cannot be present when evil and the devil play human puppet show games. Sensing evil and choosing to disengage and detangle takes some practice. With God's help, the spirit is capable of being set free. With the same mouth, I can speak love and hate, all in the same sentence. With these hands, I can calm and soothe, or tightly grip in a strangle hold. Free will gives me choice. And God? He knows what we-what you and I-are capable of. He is the incomparable God Almighty and He alone can judge the living and the dead. In the words of Jesus The Christ "Why do you call me good?" Jesus replied. "No one is good except God alone." Let's not make the mistake of believing otherwise.