It is easy to forget that there is a war going on. I don’t mean the wars in other countries. I mean the war right here beneath your feet, in your home, and against your soul. A battle of good and evil underlies your life, and the stance you take towards it will be crucial to its outcome.
We take notice of evil when it bangs hard upon the door of our house: the fire that claims a child’s life, for example, or the thief that steals your wallet. But the evil that you sleep through often does the greatest harm of all. It does its work quietly and subtly, like a colony of termites in the crawlspace of your home. With patience and persistence evil can devour the very fabric of your soul.
The foundation of the human community is being dismantled in just this way. Honesty, compassion, self-discipline, empathy, humility, courage, and integrity are among the qualities of a psychologically mature individual. But nowadays these attributes and aspirations are tossed by the roadside. In their place, a code of moral convenience is taking hold. The most convenient “solution” to problems and relationship issues is now in vogue. You see it in politics, business, television, and in your own experiences with others: psychopath morality is the new normality.
We are becoming a nation of zombies, people who have fallen asleep with their silk pillowcase to the subtle movements of evil within the world, and in themselves. Mesmerized by the world, we have fallen asleep to the soul. Of course, evil prefers it this way. The sleeping prey is easier to catch than the wary. But, sadly, it seems that a part of us also prefers to be asleep to the battle in front of us.
Evil is an ugly thing, and awareness of it brings the responsibility to do something about it. The temptation to be unconscious of it is strong. Who wants to wrestle with evil? Who wants to live in a civil war of the soul? Instead, you would flee to the Canada of your mind. But the war will seek you out; evil will drag you to the front and into the trenches. And, eventually, you will have to fight, whether you want to or not. Evil is real. It is active. And it never sleeps.