Stop the Pain ...

It is nearly impossible to appreciate truth when suffering excruciating pain. Our lives are full of it. And sadly, most of the pain we endure is primarily due to the decisions we make ourselves. The irony of self interest, is that the more we try to serve only ourselves, the more we make ourselves miserable. But to stop this downward cyclone of horror we must first recognize the truth about evil, and our relationship with it.

God is love. He is omnipotent and pure. He is only comprised of everything that is good. He is life, love, and joy. So it stands to reason that anything that is not God is also not good. Any deviation away from the source of life, leads to death. Any deviation from the source of joy, leads to misery. This was the knowledge of good and of evil that Lucifer discovered when he stopped looking to serve others and began to serve only himself. It was not murder that comprised the first sin in our universe. It was not sexual immorality, or theft. It was something far more insidious, it was internal, it was pride. It was a deviation away from God’s perfect order of service into the horribly destructive world of self interest. Serving self is at the center of everything we have to come know about evil.

Because of the history of our world according to our Bible, man gave up his dominion over himself and planet earth to Satan. In breaking trust with God, we gave up our ability to have control even over ourselves. In short, we were bound by sin and evil. Our nature is to act in the perseverance of self, and further in our own self interest. Evolutionist’s call this survival of the fittest, yet these are the acts behind every horror history has to offer. It is not acts of love and sacrifices for others that mark the hallmarks of atrocity in our world; it is rather acts of naked aggression, of insatiable lust, of quests for more and more power over our fellow man. All these traits share self-interest in the core of their motivation.

Each act of self interest however carries with it a degree of consequence and pain. The consequences and pain may not be felt immediately, however the longer they are delayed, the more severe they usually are when they inevitably are realized. Getting lung cancer from smoking cigarettes is not a punishment from God, it is simply cause and effect, fill your lungs up with enough tar, and you get cancer. Cancer hurts. Cancer spreads. Cancer kills. And the pain of cancer is not restricted, whether we are talking physically inside the body of its carrier, or emotionally to the entire circle of friends and family who share the pain of the afflicted, and his/her loss. Evil is much like cancer. It seems inconsequential at first. It might come wrapped in a pretty package and even feel good in the short term. But underneath is death incarnate, underneath is pain on a stick, underneath is cancer just waiting to spread and make life a living torture factory for you and everyone you know or care about.

So why on earth would any logical thinking human being choose to participate in evil, knowing the outcome is what it is? Are we clinically deranged, do we all have a death wish, are we at heart masochists - perhaps. More likely, we are all just a bunch of junkies. We are literally addicted to our self destructive behaviors. Those that believe they can stop when they want to, never seem to find the time to actually make that decision. We are as we have always been, bound to our evil, slave to it, addicted in every way that matters. It is the only logical explanation to an illogical set of facts. We know we should not choose to do it again, but we do anyway, over and over and over again. Christians take their sins to the cross and ask forgiveness, but even though forgiven, they seldom cease from the behavior that requires them to go back to the cross again and again.

And thus pain runs rampant in our lives. We hurt ourselves. We hurt our victims. We hurt those who care about our victims. We hurt those who care about us. We make a ripple of pain in the pond of our world, and the ripples carry with intensity for a long way. So what hope does a slave have in light of the overwhelming evidence of our slavery? What hope does the addict have, when at rock bottom they finally realize their own condition of helplessness? We need outside help. We need a savior. And fortunately for our desperate need, God has provided just what was needed to break this horrific cycle of doom.

We will discuss later the process of how being saved from evil works, but for purposes of this discussion the fact that there is a way to end the pain is the significant point. Most of the pain we feel in our lives is due to the decisions we make. Sometimes it is due to the decisions others make but this is far less the case. The reason why we are the major supplier of pain to ourselves, is that our very nature and very addiction cause us to make poor decisions, repeatedly, and often. This condition must end, if our minds are ever to see truth. This condition must end for us to be able to rest. This condition must end, if the world around us is ever going to be changed for the better. This is the final battle. It is the battle for our souls, for our selves, and for our very nature. It will be fought in the mirror. And it will be won or lost depending on who we choose to align with in the coming fray.