A
couple years ago, I wrote a post about the bad guy. I used several fictional
characters to illustrate my point. Summed up, I mentioned that there are
villainous characters I feel for because of their stories. All of us go through
struggles in life, and they can make or break us. Through God’s grace, we are
saved and can do good for others, but not all take this chance. Villains show
me my own fleshly vulnerability, and in turn reminds me to examine my life as a
follower of Jesus Christ.
I think
it is time to revisit this issue, and share some new views I have on this
matter. Perhaps I have been living under a rock my whole life or maybe I am
correct in saying that there seems to be a trend of idolizing the bad guys.
Many reasons exist for this – there may be more character development, the
actor or actress may be more appealing in looks and nature than the rest of the
cast or perhaps people just enjoy living life vicariously through the baddie’s
side. I’m sure many more reasons exist for this, but I digress.
I used
to enjoy watching the show, Once Upon a
Time. This season I decided to give it up. I can save some time and sum up
my reasons as being I was too emotionally involved with a tv show. That’s all
it is, and there are more important things I should spend my time doing.
However, the issues at hand did get me thinking. A line I heard repeatedly
through the show was, “Evil is not born; it is made.”
I agree
to the extent that our surroundings shape who we are. The Lord has blessed me
with a godly Christian heritage, loving family, food and shelter, supportive
friends, Christian education, freedoms and the list goes on and on. I have a
lot to be grateful for, and I owe a lot of who I am to the Lord and His
blessings as well as the people He has placed in my life. Not all are so
blessed as I am. Desperation and deprivation can lead people down some dark
paths, and I understand that. The thing is – it doesn't have to be that way.
The opposite can be said of both scenarios. People who are blessed as I are still
capable of making poor choices that lead to death and destruction, just as
people from less fortunate scenarios are fully capable of rising to the
challenge and making a difference for good in this world.
Every
human no matter who you are is born the same – a sinner. Romans 3:23 tells that
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jeremiah 17 tells us that
the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It is the Lord who knows the
heart and can heal it. So you see, we are all born evil. We are born selfish,
wanting our way and doing what it takes to get it. This is where God’s grace
comes in to play. He has made a way to save us from our sins. He gave us His
Word to teach us how to be saved and how to live for Him.
Now it
takes work, and it also takes roots. This is why Jesus commands in Matthew 16
to go into the world and preach unto the nations. We are to share our knowledge
of salvation with others, so they may believe in Christ and be saved. The Lord
has also given instruction to parents, pastors and various church leaders to
shepherd minds with the knowledge of Christ. So yes, many people turn down dark
paths because they have not yet heard there was another way or they chose to
neglect salvation.
My point is this – evil is born,
and then we have a choice. We can accept the gift of salvation or we can
neglect it. We can choose God’s goodness and light or we can remain in the
darkness. Ultimately it comes down to a matter of heart and not circumstance. It is the most important choice we can make. Seeing this issue taken
so lightly in our culture and media is troublesome. So now, I must make a
choice to deter from idolizing wickedness and look to encourage and reflect
goodliness.
