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Chapter-a-Day

The Implosion of Evil

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Chapter-a-Day Psalm 64

Their own tongues will ruin them,
    and all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
Psalm 64:8 (NLT)

Wendy and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving Day at home yesterday, just the two of us. In the morning we found ourselves in a wonderful, meandering conversation. At one point we rhetorically asked ourselves how many people around the country would be sitting down to Thanksgiving meal to truly enjoy a grateful feast and how many would sit down to the same feast to medicate the emptiness and the dissatisfaction I pondered in yesterday’s post. There is a difference between feasting and gluttony. So it is with so many things in life, Wendy and I concluded. God gives us a natural appetite meant for our good, and then says, “I’ve set before you life and death.” We can choose to channel that appetite to things that ultimately bring about more fullness of life and glorify our Creator, or we can channel that appetite into choices that slowly drain life from us, ultimately leading us toward death.

I thought about that conversation as I read the lyrics of today’s psalm which was David’s exploration and meditation on evil people. I found the above verse interesting because it is a theme I see time and time again from Narnia to Middle Earth to Hogwarts and to Shakespeare’s entire catalog of stories. Evil ends up imploding from within. While the forces of good always rise up to combat it, evil tends to get tripped up in its own snares  and to bring about its own destruction.

This is part of the universal Truth of God’s creation. Evil cannot not make, it can only mar. Evil stands in opposition to good just as death stands in opposition to life. Like the wicked described in today’s psalm, evil lies and deceives to further its own ends only to get tripped up by its own lie. At its core, evil is about destruction. It’s no wonder it ends up destroying itself. Good is about creating and recreating life. It’s no wonder it ends up redeeming, restoring and making broken things new again.

I am reminded this morning of God’s words to Moses and the gang in Deuteronomy 30. This is what I’m taking with me into my day:

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life….”

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Numbers 22

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Jim Broadbent as the adult Digory Kirke in The...
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The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your trusty donkey on whom you’ve ridden for years right up until now? Have I ever done anything like this to you before? Have I?” Numbers 22:30 (MSG)

C.S. Lewis’ classic tale, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, has always been one of my favorites. There is a scene early in the story when Lucy’s elder siblings, Peter and Susan, are convinced that their sister is lying to them about her mysterious trips through the wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia. At their wit’s end, they have a conversation with the Professor about their sister’s odd behavior. To their amazement, he decides that their sister is telling the truth.

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious she isn’t mad. For the moment then, and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”

The children come to learn that the Professor was correct. They refused to accept their sister’s story because it didn’t fit inside their comfortable definition of reality.

Along the journey, I’ve come to realize that we often place God in a box in our minds. It’s a neat little box. It’s dimensions are those which we define based on our comfort level and our experience in the journey. The problem is that an infinite, omniscient and omnipotent God never seems to consistently fit neatly inside a box we create in our finite minds and limited experience.

In today’s chapter, we learn that God had made himself known to a man named Balaam. Balaam was not one of “God’s people.” He was not one of the Israelites coming up out of Egypt. Nevertheless, it is clear that God had revealed Himself to Balaam and used Balaam (and Balaam’s donkey) to accomplish His purpose. 

Balaam stands as a reminder to me that God can work in and through whomever He wishes in order to accomplish His purpose. The way God works, and those through whom He chooses to accomplish His will, do not always fit within my comfortable definition. Like Susan and Peter, I am constantly finding that my faith and wonder must expand as God reveals Himself to be and to act in ways that are exceeding, abundantly beyond all that I can think or imagine.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 145

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Aslan is on the loose. God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough. There are no boundaries to his greatness. Psalm 145:3 (MSG)

I love the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis (not as much as my wife, but I do love the stories). In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the four Pevensie children are in the enchanted land of Narnia at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. The Beavers are telling the children that the great lion, Aslan, is on the loose. The idea of an uncaged lion scares the children and they appropriately ask if Aslan is a "safe" lion, to which the Beaver replies, "he's not safe, but he's good."

I have always loved that description of God. God is not safe, but he is good. The psalmist proclaims that there are no boundaries to God's greatness and things without boundary are usually not safe. Something that is not caged is generally considered wild.

I contemplated that for a bit this morning. Lewis' allegory was apt. God is not safe. God is on the loose. I think we often, as human beings, try to place our own man-made limits on God. We create a cage in our hearts and minds where we think God will fit quite nicely. If we can put him in our mental and spiritual cage, then we create the deceptively false notion that God is somehow safe.

God, please destroy the cage I've built for you in my heart. Teach me of your boundless greatness.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and benjaminw

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