Think About it -- Forgive me for the Times I Wore That

Think About It Think About it -- Forgive me for the Times I Wore That
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Carl Chinn

Mar 9, 2024

I recently attended the funeral of a 16-year-old boy who had committed suicide. He was not a troubled teen battling addictions, gangs or crime. This was a popular young man seemingly destined for a great life.

The sermon was good; the funeral went as well as one might expect. Yet I left with a groaning question related to our world as evil fighters.

What kind of a world are we painting for our youth? Do we illustrate a world with no hope? Have we been so focused on, and prepared for evil that the only solution we depict is escape?

We should not stop noticing and chronicling the encroachment of evil and improving ways to fight it. We are called into that fight where evil abounds. It is dangerous and we must fight. Satan desires the full destruction of everyone you love. He wants your children as young as he can get them, and he works through people that look a lot like us.

We must protect.

Nobody before or since, encountered the tricks and horrors of evil as intensively and directly as Christ Himself.

In those penetrating moments immediately following Christ’s baptism, as He earnestly sought God’s will for His ministry on earth, Satan showed up. I believe the two truly saw and communicated with each other as we read it in Matthew 4:1-11. The narrative of that encounter came from Jesus Himself. It was no parable.

Imagine spending personal time the first day after an intensive 40-day fast with your biggest adversary. This was far more intense.

While there is debate among theologians about the following, I believe Christ even literally went into hell in the three days after the crucifixion and before He rose again.

Think About it

Christ knows evil on a level far beyond what any evil fighter can fathom. The most experienced warrior has only glimpsed the ugliness Christ experienced then and now.

Yet He didn’t walk out the pages of scripture (or history since) defined by, or defining others by, the evil he witnessed. He didn’t ignore it, but He didn’t wear it. Few walk away after an encounter with Him depressed (with exceptions).[i]

Should most walk away from an encounter with us depressed? No. That sin would be on us.

Be ready to fight while always wearing the joy of Christ.

Be angry, and yet do not sin.[ii]

[i] Matthew 19:16-22

[ii] Ephesians 4:26

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