Article December 15, 2014 ISSUE

Destroying evil’s claim to reality

Margaret Foerster

Whenever we hear of a problem and exclaim, “How terrible! How awful!” we’re essentially marveling at its reality. When I take the bait and find myself admitting that something is terrible or tragic—and not getting beyond that sense of it—I’m hooked into believing in the appearance of evil, its presence and destructive ability. I’ve magnified evil rather than contributing to its elimination.

When Christ Jesus looked out into a sea of people—the lame, blind, sick, sinful, impoverished, crippled—I don’t think he said, “How awful!” Nor do we have a record of Jesus discussing with his disciples the symptoms or nature of various diseases or ailments. What we do have on record is Jesus challenging this kind of thinking with compassion and healing those individuals who came to him—restoring sight, hearing, mobility, and life (see Matthew 4:23).

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