You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean.
-Leviticus 11:47 NIV
Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.
Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in ‘The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956‘
This ain’t easy business.
I can’t improve on Solzhenitsyn, but I can ruminate on the Biblical challenge to discern between good and evil.
They are mixed together in each of us. Just as the balance of good and evil moves in others, it moves in us.
Watching my internal dance between good and evil and order and chaos (different dances, yet interrelated) is key for me to discern between good and evil in the world.
I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit
-Psalm 77:6 RSV
I can only seek the constant good of God once I have come to know the ever changing nature of myself. Another dance. I commune with God and know myself better. I commune with myself and know God better. The journeys are intertwined.
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