“Who Can Understand It?”

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

The line between good and evil runs straight through every human heart. On the one side is the imago Dei which reflects all that is true, and good, and beautiful; on the other is the darkness of human and demonic depravity. To underestimate this is to live in a fatal dream. Whether we are Muslim, Jew, or Christian (or one of the many “others:), whether we are anti-Christian, anti-semitic, or Islamophobic, we should see clearly the divide in our own hearts between good and evil. The only sure sign that the kingdom of God is among us is the spread like a virus of repentance. [My own deep sadness was provoked by this post at MEMRI.org, whether or not one agrees completely with the perspective].

Again, while one might quibble about the details and the precise perspective here and there, a quick read through the just released Amnesty International Human Rights Report for 2008 exposes the global dark side of the human heart. When we read it in sorrow, it points however faintly to our better side, our true home.  But the journey across the dividing line is often long…and cruciform.