Some End of the Year Thoughts

 

1 Kings 8:38 (KJV)

³⁸What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

What a verse! Note that Solomon specifically talks about man seeing into the “plague of his own heart.” I think it echoes the cry of Paul the apostle, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Paul looks and shrinks back from the horror of his own sin and Solomon seems to also have seen into the horrible window of the human soul.

I was thinking about the cry today accusing nearly everyone and nearly everyday of being a “Nazi”. Particularly the accusation is made against those supporting Charlie Kirk, and it is used by both sides rather indiscriminately. It is often used, again by both sides, to depict the lowest grade of humans. There does not seem to be any lower appellation possible—as if being a “Nazi” is the worst conceivable human.

I submit to you that I am that Nazi. But I also submit to you that you are also that Nazi. In the eternal words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

I am reading my annual turn through the Lord of the Rings (estimated 55  times so far) and thinking about that awful draw of Sauron’s ring toward evil. The very best and wisest characters of the book know that to use the ring would only lead to evil, no matter how nobly one started. That ring thus symbolizes evil in the world, and must be gotten rid of. That the task of getting rid of evil should fall to Frodo seems to me to be one of the most interesting draws of the book.

And that is where I am at, where you are at. We could start with all the best intentions to better our world, but that evil lurking in our own hearts utterly confounds the best of intentions. Even in my old age, I sometimes find myself wishing that I was “in charge” and could change things. But it only takes a few seconds of reflection to realize that I would only make things worse, and perhaps much worse if I were in charge. The road to hell, it is true, is paved with good intentions.

And perhaps that makes the world, careening itself ever towards evil, a bit closer to realizing its need. If we really are all a bunch of Nazis, who shall deliver us from this body of death? Perhaps the key to understanding ourselves is to realize the hidden Nazi in our bosom, covered up well by some, but for all that still the guiding prince of our time. We need forgiveness. We need grace. As Paul concludes his epic chapter, “I thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord.”