Presence of Evil

Yesterday, in Boston, one of the most historic sporting events was challenged.  At least two bombs went off at or near the finish line of the marathon's end, killing a young boy and injuring several others. It has been the star of the news for the past day.  It is an horrendous tragedy and it seems to stir something in us, something deep down in our cores.

Most of this life is, when it is stripped down to reality, a game of distraction.  We spend our money, our time, and our energy pretending that we are healthy, attempting to cheat death, and ignoring the evil and sin all around us.  However, there are those occasions, such as the tragic events in Boston or the Connecticut school shooting or the Colorado theatre shooting, when we are forced to face the truth: that evil does exist.

Often times this reality sparks theological tension as we reel back to ask "where is God?"  But I submit that this question itself is proof of God's existence.  If we are to recognize the external absoluteness of evil we must have an innate sense of that which is good; for you cannot have eyes to see evil if those eyes are not tuned to see the good.

This thought warrants that good is not to be considered the opposite of evil, as it were, but that evil is the utter lacking of good.  Sort of like hot is not the opposite of cold just that cold is the complete absence of the presence of heat.  But we could not know that which is cold apart from an understanding that heat exists as a reality.  Similarly, we could not begin to recognize that evil exists if we do not accept that good must be as well.

And 'good', if we could consider it a substance more than a trait of things that are good, must be an external thing that is thus possessed in some measure through the actions/thoughts done.  It must not be thought of like blue or smelly, for it is not perceived through the normal means: it is perceived spiritually.  Because of this, we should remember that the presence of evil, strangely, is a reminder at the presence of God because it is in our relationship to God that we can in any way perceive that which is good and, by extension, that which is evil.

At the final analysis, evil is an indictment of how far from the good man and creation has fallen as well as a reminder as to how great and good God truly is that we could recognize evil at all despite the wickedness of our sinful nature.  My prayers go out to the victims of this tragedy and I pray as well that it serves to turn us back to God!