Dark Side

     Every week brings more grim news.  What’s going on in the world?

     Recent headlines reported: “Man Kills Wife and Daughter in Restaurant.”  “Former Student Kills 7 At Christian University.” “Man Kills Girlfriend, Self After Police Chief Murder.”

     Troubling headlines like these make us doubt humankind’s goodness.  Until these crimes were committed, some of the perpetrators seemed normal.  What’s wrong with people?

     What’s wrong is human nature.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we must all admit that we have a ‘Dark Side.’ A side of us that’s bent toward evil and not good.

     “Now hold on just a minute!” you say.  “Aren’t most people basically good at heart?”

     Many think so, but the evidence is quite to the contrary.  And if we ignore the obvious we do ourselves a disservice.  As author Joel C. Rosenberg observes, “To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.”

     In “The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me,” poet Delmore Schwartz implies that being human has a beastly side to it.  The poem shows us a violent and unflattering picture of humanity.

     The “Heavy Bear” represents both our bodies and the uncivilized primitive core of our human personality.  It is the “id” of Freud, the “unconscious mind” of psychologists and the hard-to-control brute in each of us – all rolled into one.  And it’s always with us.

     Saints and poets through the ages chronicled an endless struggle with their darker side.  It’s the struggle the Bible describes between flesh and spirit.  And nowhere in modern verse has this struggle been portrayed with greater power than in “The Heavy Bear.”

     In contrast, the amazing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God can tame our “Heavy Bear.” Our darker side.  But not everyone wants it to be tamed.  Why?  Because there’s a frightening, intoxicating exhilaration in venting our rage and indulging our evil side.

     Now go back and read the recent news headlines I quoted above.  Ponder the damage and destruction wrought by human wrath.  Think of the lives and property ruined every year.

     Our ‘Dark Side’ needs subduing, doesn’t it?  But how can it be done?

     Lasting inner peace is the solution.  And that peace has only one source – God.

     The Apostle Paul writes in the Bible, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  And once you have peace WITH God he adds, “The peace OF God…will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

     Paul knew this firsthand.  He was a former religious zealot and a murderer of Christians (by his own admission).  But then he had a personal encounter with the risen Christ. That encounter transformed him into a compassionate evangelist and follower of Jesus.  And he was not alone.

     After warning Christians, “the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God,” Paul adds, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified [made holy], you were justified [made righteous], in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

     God alone has an amazing track record of taking angry, violent, evil, hopeless people and turning them into peaceful saints.  The Bible is full of such success stories.  History is too.

     While we can’t personally do much about the grim headlines we read, we can do something about our own ‘Dark Side.’  God offers us the only solution that works every time it’s tried.

     The Bible says “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Saved from sin, your ‘Dark Side’ and then filled with God’s gift of peace.

     Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!