Evil and Good

The local community in Addingham has been shocked by the murder of a young man outside a pub in our village at the beginning of April. It was like a stone thrown into a still pond – the ripples spread out wider and wider as more and more lives are affected. One moment of madness with such wide-spreading consequences. We see the same thing on the news every day; in one moment a suicide bomber has sent out waves of destruction.

It is tempting to think that the power to destroy is stronger than any power to heal. But the power to hurt and the power to heal, evil and goodness, work in different ways. Evil draws attention to itself. It makes an immediate impact. Look at all the bad news in the media. Or consider a classroom at school; when I was a teacher it was always the disruptive children who commandeered my attention while the well behaved children got on quietly in the background. Goodness works quietly; it does not seek recognition. A good act which is trumpeted is more a work of pride than of goodness. The work of goodness is like a seed sown beneath the ground; its consequences are not visible immediately. But just because something is not visible or immediate it does not make it less effective. All the time God is working for good with those who love him. All the time the seeds of goodness are growing. Ripples on a pond diminish; seeds grow.

The first and most important way God wants us to work with him for good is through prayer. Prayer is seed-sowing, planting the seeds of God’s love in the ground of people’s lives and in the soil of our world. Only God knows what will come of our prayers but we should have faith that just as one moment of hurt can have such wide-reaching consequences so our prayers can have similar consequences for good – not visible, not immediate, but no less powerful.