It is hard to know where the dividing line is between good and evil. Certainly it is terrible that bacteria kill two billion people every hundred years. But think of the chaos of overpopulation if there were no death! And if everything here was good and perfect, no one would leave this earth of his own accord; no one would want to go back to God. So in a sense misery is your best friend, because it starts you seeking God. When you begin to see clearly the imperfection of the world, you will begin to seek the perfection of God. The truth is that God is using evil, not to destroy us, but to make us disillusioned with His toys, with the playthings of this world, so that we might seek Him.
This is why the Lord Himself permits injustices and evil. But I have said to Him, “Lord, you have never suffered. You have always been perfect. How do You know what suffering is? Yet you have put us through these tests; and You had no business doing it. We didn’t ask to be born as mortals and to suffer.” (He doesn’t mind that I argue with Him. He is very patient). The Lord answers, “You don’t have to go on suffering; I have given everyone the free will to choose good instead of evil, and thus come back to me.”
So evil is the test of God to see if we will choose Him or His gifts. He created us in His image and gave us the power to free ourselves. But we don’t use that power. At night, when we cease to be active, we all become godlike. But in the daytime we become devils- not all of us, but most of us. Why not live in tune with God in the daytime, for then we shall know no fear, we shall know no evil. It is easy to say this, but hard to practise it.
While evil in itself is something we don’t want, yet it is like poisoned honey- it is palatable. At the table, we are tempted to eat too much and to eat the wrong things. Then we begin to get fat here and there, just where we don’t want it. In response to our wrong actions, Nature takes revenge and seems to be poking fun at us all the time. It is indeed a funny world. But the results of our wrong actions don’t seem very funny to us! That is why I quarrel with God and scold Him, “Why have You created all of these terrible temptations that Your children succumb to? Why have You made them so pleasurable?” Well, that is the trick of God- if you are going to act like an idiot, you deserve to suffer.
