I am second

Take a moment and watch this video. I have been a big fan of I am second for a long time, and whilst I appreciate the celebrities and their stories, it is the ordinary individuals who for me have some powerful stories. Perhaps it is because I have a deep passion for the plight sex slaves have. That is why I am most moved by this vide0. The problem I have found is finding the right words to complement such a powerful testimony of God overcoming Evil.

Karen Green – I am Second

I battle with the idea of everyone having “good” in them. I doubt this is true, Sodom is destroyed in Genesis 19 because the was not one person (apart from Lot) who was good. God reboots the system with Noah, because goodness had almost gone from the planet

“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” – Genesis 6:5

There is plenty of evidence that suggests that humans without God, and I do mean Yahweh himself can get up to some terrible stuff. I am close to finishing a very powerful book by a man named Scott Peck, called “People of the Lie”. It was groundbreaking for its time because he proposed that people can be evil.

And he is right.

“There really are people and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They do this not with conscious malice but blindly, lacking awareness of their own evil — indeed, seeking to avoid any such awareness. As has been described of the devil in religious literature, they hate the light and instinctively will do anything to avoid it, including attempting to extinguish it. They will destroy the light in their own children and in all other beings subject to their power.

Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. They hate goodness because it reveals their badness; they hate love because it reveals their laziness. They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love in order to avoid the pain of such self-awareness. My second conclusion, then, is that evil is laziness carried to its ultimate, extraordinary extreme. As I have defined it, love is the antithesis of laziness. Ordinary laziness is a passive failure to love. Some ordinarily lazy people may not lift a finger to extend themselves unless they are compelled to do so. Their being is a manifestation of nonlove; still, they are not evil.

Truly evil people, on the other hand, actively rather than passively avoid extending themselves. They will take any action in their power to protect their own laziness, to preserve the integrity of their sick self. Rather than nurturing others, they will actually destroy others in this cause. If necessary, they will even kill to escape the pain of their own spiritual growth. As the integrity of their sick self is threatened by the spiritual health of those around them, they will seek by all manner of means to crush and demolish the spiritual health that may exist near them.

I define evil, then, as the exercise of political power — that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion — in order to avoid extending one’s self for the purpose of nurturing spiritual growth. Ordinary laziness is nonlove; evil is antilove.” – M. Scott Peck

I listen to Karens Testimony and it only confirms more my suspicion that people left to their own devices who circumvent the law can become vicious and evil. My suggestion is not everyone may turn this way, but there are some people who live in the darkness and relish in evil.

I appreciate the unpleasantness of what I am saying, the truth is the adage “Always look for the good in people” may be more difficult than first anticipated.

Karens face as she recounts her spiral into the black hint at the foulness that lies in the abyss. There in the darkness those individuals can abuse and misuse a now wonderful individual.

Have you ever been in a cave where there is not natural source of light. I have. I went caving on a youth camp several time, I remember getting deep underground and then switching off our torches. The darkness is overpowering, nothing is visible, there are no outlines, only black. Opening and closing your eyes reveals no difference, just darkness. The moment you turn on the light though, it penetrates the blackness, defines the walls of the caves, reveals exits, animals and life. In an instant darkness retreats and light dominates.

Karen Green says in that video…

“When we have been through so much in our lives, it becomes a cover, and it darkens and our soul. And what God does [the Spirit] of God does, is it peels back the covers and your soul starts to see the light.

And I said thank you Jesus.”

Darkness hates the light, and the smallest glimmer can brighten the darkest cave. There in jail Karen discovered evils kryptonite light.

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

“Wake up, O sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” – Ephesians 5:8-16