When Evil Turns

(c) Staci Stallings, 2006

Have you ever noticed how beautiful evil is the first time you encounter it? It looks fun and exciting, like the answer to all of your problems. Whether it's that first drink, that large bag of chips, that joint-or even those less obvious introductions-like that first time a little lie will remedy a situation and "no one will ever know," or that first time tired seems more important than church, or that first time you realize your friends all curse and you join in to feel a part of something. Boy, do you feel big. It's as if for the first time in your life, you finally fit in. Yes, this finally is the answer you've been looking for.

If and when you take that first step toward evil, the next is much easier, and the next easier than that. Evil looks at you softly, knowing it has you already, but wanting only to lead you further, deeper into the darkness. It never shows you the darkness to which you are heading, instead it holds out false light, false beliefs, false hope. It will convince you one experience at a time that yes, indeed you have finally found "the answer." It will convince you that this, finally, will take away all the bad things in your life. It will help you to escape from feeling separated, alone, and scared. It will make you feel like somebody.

Oh, yes. Evil looks beautiful-at first.

I've always sensed this fact. I've always kind of known that evil doesn't look evil the first time we encounter it, the first time it tempts us toward its side. However, that understanding was never put into so concrete terms until I saw "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." In the movie, as in the book, the character of Edmund stumbles into the realm of the Witch, who is evil personified perfectly. She is not a hideous, deformed creature. No, she is beautiful in an icy, sinister way.

At their first meeting, the Witch instantly sizes Edmund up as the way she can get what she wants-a way to kill those who are meant to destroy her. But rather than demand anything from Edmund, instead she "sweetens him up" literally. She feeds him beautiful, delicious Turkish Delights. And while she feeds his body empty magic, she feeds his mind empty magic as well. If he will just be on her side, if he will bring his brother and sisters to her, she will not only give him more Turkish Delight, she will make him a king with his brother as his servant.

This, of course, sounds wonderful to Edmund as it does to us. You see for me, the Turkish Delight was success, achievement, and accomplishment; and being a queen meant my work would be recognized and revered. Now, the insidious thing about this for me is that Satan used something that looked holy and good to lead me further onto his side. I was using my writing to serve God. I was working for God. I wanted to be published so I could spread God's word to all the world. Such a noble goal that, and so ultimately hollow and untrue because my efforts were just that mine not His.

"I will give you all of this..." That's what Satan told Christ as they stood on the mountaintop, and that's always where Evil starts with us. He doesn't start at the throw us down on a cross and crucify us part although whether we turn to his side or not, that is always, always where we end up when the world is in charge of things.

You see, Satan doesn't care about us except for how we can help him further himself. (And it is the same with evil people in the world as well.) As soon as we are no longer needed to further his goals and ambitions, we are expendable. Worse, when we realize he thinks so little of us and we try to turn from him, our death and destruction inevitably results from his innate, seething anger and his distrust of us. In fact, he knows better than we do where evil leads-into a selfish, jealous, power-hungry pit of separation, desperation, and fear, and if we continue to follow it, we might even become more evil than he is, and he can't have us be the ruler of his domain. So, our destruction at his hand is inevitable at the outset of his plan. All he really cares about is using us until we are no longer needed to further his purposes.

In the movie, Edmund is taken in by the Witch's treats so much so that he voluntarily leaves his brother and sisters to seek her out. He crosses a great wood and a mountain range to get to her because he believes her to be his only friend. Let me tell you, when Satan convinces you that he is your only friend, you're in serious trouble. Upon entering the witch-queen's palace which is a cold, lifeless place, Edmund is at first afraid. Then he realizes how "superior" he is to those who are now stone statues in the Witch's "kingdom."

It is telling how very few lives there are in her kingdom. Only the three servants who do her bidding are animated with life. That should've been a hint to get out of there, but of course, we always think that we are the favored one of her majesty, Evil. These others were just dumb about it. This could never happen to us. And so we are drawn deeper and deeper into the lies she has us believing are real.

After a heart-stopping moment with the queen's guard, Edmund is led into the queen's throne room, and for one more moment he is allowed to believe the illusion. Symbolically, he walks up to her throne and sits on it. He has done exactly what got Satan tossed from Heaven. He has pictured himself on that throne and wanted it for himself-not for the benefit of anyone else but because it shows his power and his right to be lord over everyone else.

Immediately, however, we see the Witch, the queen herself standing, watching him. She sees Edmund, sitting on her throne, and in that moment, the turn happens. You can see it in her eyes and her countenance as her eyes narrow and her face drops to a malicious scowl. Then, for one more moment, she pulls the illusion of nice back to her as she steps over to him. "Like it?" she asks.

And that is exactly what Satan asks us. "Like it?" Then he smiles because he knows we have truly fallen for the ultimate lie.

Edmund, knowing he has overstepped his place, jumps out of the chair, but it's too late for him. She has him, and she knows it even if he doesn't. The next scene is telling. She questions him about his service for her, and he tries to talk his way out of why he hasn't done what she told him to do. Then, humanly although stupidly, he asks for more Turkish Delight.

The next that we see Edmund, he is literally in shackles and chains. Very poignant symbolism because when we have begun to see evil for what it truly is, we are instantly chained to keep us enslaved to its bidding. To us, these "chains" may look like a lot of things-habits that we can't break, addictions that have a hold on us, friends we don't want to turn our backs on because they've been nice to us in the past, ways of living that are so comfortable that we don't want to risk doing it a different way, guilt for all the things we should have done differently, and the ultimate chain, not seeing that life could ever be any better than it is at that horrific moment.

Edmund is now given not Turkish Delights but stale bread and air for water. He's miserable. He knows he made a huge mistake, but how to get out of it? The saddest component of this part of the tale is how intensely he's trying to do the right thing but how acutely clear it is that HE has to do the right thing. There is no back up. There is no guide. There is no one to help him. Just him and his own resources fighting to do the right thing in the coldest, scariest place in the world.

For me, this moment was when I realized how empty the world's acclaim ultimately was. I had spent two solid weeks traveling to do book signings and appearances only to come home depleted and empty. Whatever book sales were needed to feel "successful" hadn't been met (and no matter how many you sell, you could always have sold more).

Then my publicist emailed telling me she was going to get a copy of the television appearance with the intention of judging my performance. I now see this as the way the world does everything. You have to know what you're doing (even if you don't), and then what you did is picked apart-supposedly to make you better, but we all know the lie that really is. Being picked apart may seem like it works because we've seen people who are pushed to their limits and beyond, who are going on their own power to get better, and it looks like that works. However, I submit to you that the "acclaim" the world holds out as your reward will feel like smoke in your hands if that is all you end up with. And it's not hard to see that if that's all you're going for, that's all you will end up with-even if you get it. That will be all you have to hold onto because that's the way Satan has set it up.

It is at this point in the movie that Edmund is again and again made to look at what he's done to those around him. The faun that Edmund so innocently turned in is brought before him and told of Edmund's betrayal. Edmund's guilt crashes in on him. Then the Witch uses the faun, beating him as Edmund watches to get Edmund's cooperation. By this point, Satan is willing to beat anyone, knowing that on our own we will feel so helpless as to do whatever he asks just to get it to stop.

And then he smiles at our helpless weakness. In minutes Edmund sees that even though he gave the Witch what she wanted to get her to stop beating the faun, ultimately she turned the faun to stone anyway. I think at that point Edmund is beginning to see that this will not end well for him. Going on your own devises, there is no way out once you've sold your soul to evil.

Thus begins a trek through the wood-deeper and darker the world becomes, and when we see Edmund again, he is bound to a tree, defenseless against the jabs and jibes of all the evil around him. He's been beaten, and by now, he knows full-well that he took the wrong path, but still he sees no way out.

Of course the story doesn't end there although in our own lives we often think that it does. No, Aslan, the Christ figure, sends a regiment out to rescue Edmund and bring him back into the fold. In a scene that we watch but never hear, Aslan talks with Edmund who is then released of his guilt in the matter fully.

Aslan tells Edmund's brother and two sisters, "What's past is past. You are not to speak of this to Edmund anymore." There is more to the story that you really should see the movie to understand-Edmund being further used by the Witch, her cruelty and utter contempt for Edmund's soul, her cold need to destroy him, how his soul is eventually ransomed and saved by the only one who can. But that is for another lesson.

For now... After the movie, my friend and I were discussing the meaning of this part, and I asked her, "So, when did evil turn on you?" I asked because this insight of evil being so nice to us and leading us to believe that it will be what saves us until we find out the truth was so clear to me.

Without hardly pause to think, she told me the answer for her. Until the moment evil turned, she had twisted her life to be able to gain her family's love. She had made foolish choices for herself in a vain attempt to get their acceptance. Over and over she had let herself down, pushed herself into a corner, and cowed to whatever guilt trip needed to be taken so that they would notice her and love her. What an insidious way for Satan to work because on the outside, her chains looked so loving and helpful and compassionate. Yet they really were chains.

The moment she described (and like Aslan with Edmund I shall let you see the lesson without hearing the actual words) made her see that killing herself and her spirit to gain their love would never work. Whatever she did, it would never be enough, and thinking that it would was a lie.

The journey back for her has been rocky at times, as it is with all of us. She is still on the path, but now she sees evil for what it really is, and trusting God's love for her and His path for her is getting if not easier, than clearly easier than the alternative. She is a soul who has seen evil for what it will do to you if you believe it and follow it.

As for me, it was less a single moment than a whole string of them that showed me how empty achievement and success by the world's standards are. The glitz and the gold the world holds out are nothing more than a shiny way to get you to walk toward them. When you get them, they are at first smoke and at the end chains that will destroy you if you don't find a way to grab on to the One who is real.

He is what you need. And He is all you need. Once you get that, really get that, then trying to prove yourself and your worth to anyone else simply feels pointless. You have seen evil for what it is, and you no longer need follow its beckoning.

How lucky are you if you are not chained by material things. How lucky are you if you are not addicted to the approval of others. How lucky are you if you do not fall for the delights that the world holds out to you. Yes, how very lucky are you... How lucky are you if you have seen evil turn on you and have used that moment as the incentive to grab onto the only Real Savior of your soul. How lucky are you... How very lucky are you.

~*~*~
Enjoy today!