Out of Evil

Martha was an elderly woman who had completely let herself go. At one time, Martha was meticulous about her house cleaning and personal appearance, but to see her now, one would think she were homeless, with no access to a hair brush or bath tub. From outer appearance, one may judge Martha as simply a woman who was lazy and sloppy, but only those closest to her knew of how the death of her husband of fifty years had caused Martha to plunge into the depths of grief and depression. The trauma of the sudden passing of her spouse forced Martha to also ponder her own death.

Martha's reaction to the natural cycle of life and death, was to hide and surrender, rather than grab hold of the time she had remaining, reaping the most joy before her time would too come.Down the street from Martha, lived Harold and Kathy. At Harold's place of business worked a new unmarried secretary. It was not long before Harold and his secretary began having an affair. To those who knew of the not very well-hidden affair, Harold was marked as a playboy, but the reality of the situation was that Harold's affair was proof of the genuine status of his marriage. Kathy, Harold's wife, never really loved Harold, but married him for selfish financial gain. So too, was Harold never truly in-love with Kathy, but was awed by her great shape and pleasant attitude which Harold knew would be a plus when he introduced his wife to the bigwigs at his office. The marriage succeeded for a while, even producing Harold, Jr., but the truth of the situation could not be hidden forever.

One block over from Harold, lived Joan. Joan suffered from severe insomnia, and when she finally did manage to sleep, her rest was disturbed with terrible nightmares. While Joan's doctor simply handed her a prescription for sleeping pills, what would have helped Joan more would be to look at what was bothering her life so much that it would invade even her sleep. The truth of the matter was that Joan was living a very immoral life, and deep in her heart, she knew her spiritual welfare was at stake. This caused great fear and stress within Joan, thus, her insomnia and nightmares.

In all of the above stories we can see that if we dig beyond the surface, we will see that those things which cause conflict in our life, are often issues that have never been fully addressed. Temptation and inner turmoil, while an evil, can thus be used to help us understand ourselves, our weaknesses, and facets of our lives that need our positive care and attention.

Rather than succumb to sin, let us positively use turmoil as a magnifying glass which clearly reveals to us just how much we need Christ in our life.

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Contributed by Melanie Schurr (Copyright (c)2003 Melanie Schurr) Melanie Schurr is author of "Ecstatic Living Ecstatic Loving: How to have more peace and joy in marriage, and life in general by walking in harmony with God," and "Son Salutations: A refreshing collection of modern inspirations for those who seek God each day." For more information, visit her web page at www.angelfire.com/mi/melschurr