November 1 4 ,1990- The Portland Observei "Page 3 • Portland Observer RELIGION Heaven within these walls The Personal Nature Of Evil Often I awake at night in the middle of a dream in which I am battling against evil in some way. These nocturnal wres­ tling matches are not with flesh-and- blood persons, but with undefined, mys­ terious forces. I realize that, as my spiri­ tual journey deepens, evil forces within me are striving to reverse the process. It’s as if Satan himself is jealous that I am drawing closer to God. I don’t want to put too much stock in these dreams be­ cause I suspect they often mirror the conscious concerns of my soul. Yet they alert me to the very real spiritual battle which is in process over my spiritual life. The image of being gradually pulled away from communion with God is an appropriate way to describe the influ­ ence o f evil. We can be distracted in our pursuit of God in the most subtle ways. Rarely are we confronted directly with proposals to renounce God. Rather we are seduced by appeals to our pride, our insecurity or our guilt for past failures, almost daily we meet the adversary of our souls in one of his ¡numberable dis­ guises. Talking about Satan can be prob­ lematic because we know so little about him. We often dismiss him as an imagi­ nary cartoon character dressed in red carrying a pitchfork. But denying Sa­ tan’s existence leads to a shallow view of sin. We erroneously explain our sin as human error or ignorance rather than defiant rebellion against God’s authority which began with Satan and spread to all of humanity. If we don’t take the devil and sin seriously, we won’t take God seriously either. We wrongly assume that God will simply close His eyes to our repeated acts of selfishness. We must stand in awe of His holiness, which Sa­ tan’s dominion over our world violates. The Distraction of pride and pleas­ ure Kenneth Leech notes that the im- portant element in understanding sin is “ not the precise structure of demonol­ ogy, but rather the existence of false spiritual directions, false paths, idols which can become the focus of attention and divert the soul towards a destructive and death-inducing spirituality.” Take, for example, the temptation to pride. The effect o f pride, even in the smallest matters, is to cut us off from others whose honesty we need in order to keep growing. There may be no deadlier trap for any of us. We are constantly tempted to think we have arrived at some state of advanced spirituality. We look around at others and smugly think we have pro­ gressed farther than they have. It’s the same mistake made by the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18:9-14. The self- righteous ruler thought God would be pleased with him in comparison to the tax collector standing nearby. But the sinful lax collector was throwing his entire life on the mercy of God. His act of total surrender made a sham of the Phari­ see’s diligent efforts to appear relig­ iously respectable. A news analyst once observed that, in his opinion, the president of the United States is the most isolated, lonely person in the world. Everyone he meets is infe­ rior to him in rank or position. He has more power than anyone else on earth. He is “ Mr. President’ ’ to all except those in his family. As a result of his elevated stature, the president tends to lose touch with reality because no one addresses him as an equal. His advisors and staff members tell him what he wants to hear instead of honestly confronting him with what he needs to hear. The president’s perspective on the world eventually becomes distorted. His life on the pedes­ tal slowly becomes unreal and fabri­ cated, especially as his thoughts gravi­ tate toward “ my place in history.” S c rip tu re o f the ^ e e h ^ SCRIPTURE OF THE WEEK: II TIMOTHY 3 "Save the Center" A similar process can occur with us. The effect of pride, even in the smallest matters, is to cut us off from others whose honesty we need in order to keep growing. By elevating ourselves above another person, we take a step toward a distorted perspective o f ourselves. We begin to forget our status as redeemed sinners. We are beggars who have expe­ rienced unbelievable charity. But we pass up the opportunity to be enriched by any person over whom we have pridefully exalted ourselves. Even worse, we begin to think that we have reached our posi­ tion because of our own efforts. At that point we deny the grace of God which is the very source of our spirituality. I findthe face of pride lurking around every comer. It tempts me to take credit for my career, my achievements and my role as a man, a husband, a father, and a leader. It praises me for any success I enjoy on my spiritual journey. These are dangerous thoughts, for they divert my eyes from God to myself and prompt me to measure myself against others. Along with pride, pleasure is one of the Satan’s most obvious distractions from spirituality. But we can be easily fooled by the concept of pleasure. We are quick to identify certain evil desires for pleasure and reject them. But we succumb to other pleasurable desires which are no more holy, but which ap­ pear to be innocent or morally neutral. For example, we know that illicit sexual activity is wrong, so we keep up our guard when we are alone with other women or men lest we slip into compro­ mising relationships. But we have no qualms about furnishing our homes ex­ travagantly while limiting our giving to others. Wc must guard ourselves as dili­ gently against subtle overindulgence to pleasure as against the most obvious. WHAT: WHEN: FESTIVE MUSICAL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1990 W HERE: DR. O.B. WILLIAMS CENTER 22 NE BEECH WHY: TO HELP SAVE THE "MISS GRACE COLLINS" DAY CARE CENTER TIM E: 7:00 P.M. FREE WILL OFFERING Make check payable to: "Miss Grace Collins Center" Sponsored by Concerned Citizens, Parents, Friends, Community, and Day Care Center Staff. THANK YOU FOR SHARING AND CARING Contact persons: Gladys Young, 282-6340; La Verne Davis, 280-6456 on forth coming Nuptials > Earnest Warren & Patrica Hill Wigland O ne of the N orthw est Largest W ig D isplays W igs and Hairpieces For all N ationalities E va G abor N aomi S ims R enee of P aris Synthetic & H um an H air For Braiding & Weeving I Mon - Fr. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday 10 - 5:30 pm