What is evil?
As I went to sleep Thursday night Russian forces were attacking Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The plant was on fire, and I did not know if I would wake up to a world covered with radioactivity. The fire died out, and I woke to the relief that at least we were out of that imminent danger – safer than I expected, but by no means safe overall. Evil is still very much with us.
But what is evil?
Most countries of the world agree that Russia’s bombing and invading Ukraine is outright evil. We all have an inner moral sense of what is right and wrong, and we often know an act is evil without having to think about it.
In the Christian worldview recognizing evil starts with recognizing the goodness of God. Our God of love created a world that is good and beautiful. You can see that everywhere. If someone destroys that goodness and beauty you know that is evil.
My grandmother Emma was born near where the war is now raging, so I decided to pinpoint her birth on historical maps. I found she was born in the Russian Empire, to a German family, in a city that is now in Poland, on land that was tumultuously disputed for centuries by those nations. Her young life was also filled with tumult. The family was working-wealthy, but her dad died when she was 10 and her brother was one. Her mom remarried badly, and they fled the country to escape the police chasing her stepfather across the border. When her mom died 5 years later, she put her brother in an orphanage and went to work.
I never got to ask my grandma about her life; she died when I was an infant. But I do know what her favorite hymn was, Be Still My Soul:
Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change He faithful will remain.
Jesus prepared us for a world plagued with evil when he said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage —I have conquered the world.”
And the prophet Isaiah instructs us how to not fear:
“Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary.”
When we have the proper fear of our all powerful, world-ruling, loving God, our hearts will fear no one else.
Be still, my soul; your God will undertake
to guide the future as he has the past;
your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
his voice who ruled them while he lived below.
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Be Still My Soul (Sibelius)
Scriptures quoted: John 16:33 (NET) Isaiah 8:12-14 (ESV)
Hope Walking 