Being Set Free

I said in my last blog that I thought the common denominator for the issues and problems that are facing us is evil. I said that whatever you prefer to call it…Satan, the Devil, or whatever else…evil is the common theme. I am more convinced of that than ever.
Last night one of our girls cut her arm. This was the third time in the short time she’s been here that she’s done that. We took her for an evaluation, but they determined that since she wasn’t an immediate threat to herself or others (go figure), she didn’t meet the criteria for admission to a mental health unit. Never mind that she cut so deeply that the blood was dripping on the floor. Never mind that she said she likes to see the blood and let it dry on her arm. Never mind that she has said that she will up the ante until she is taken from this place. She’s back with us. One of the staff stayed up all night with her to keep her from harming herself in the night.
I also read the application for admission for yet another girl this morning. As I read through one of the narratives, I ran across the following statement, “Jeanna (name changed) must learn to take responsibility for her actions.”
If I’ve read that once, I’ve read it a hundred times. It seems that virtually every parent or guardian who has applied for admission to this place on behalf of their girl has said that or something like that in the application. There are indeed common threads in the issues that face these girls. And these threads are also common to the world at large.
Think of the episode some years ago when our President was involved with a certain female intern. He insisted that his statement that “I did not have a sexual relationship with that woman,” was correct because although she had a sexual relationship with him, he did not have one with her…he was a bystander and she was the one who was active in the relationship. If you recall what physical act the relationship primarily consisted of, you can use your imagination to determine the truthfulness of that statement.
Think of the Watergate mess some years ago. The same kind of word play and thought contortion, along with the desire to not have to take responsibility for their actions led several down the primrose path.
You may not believe in a being called The Evil One. That’s OK. You just continue on in your delusion. But in one of your more lucid moments, take a job as a caretaker for troubled persons. Become a school psychologist. Be a social worker. Teach in a public school. Be a counselor. Whatever. I don’t care whether it’s girls, boys, adults…makes no difference. You’ll soon find that you encounter The Evil One toe to toe, head to head, face to face, in the lives of those who are tortured by his schemes.
Things then become much more clear. You begin to see things as they really are. This world is sometimes not a pretty place. You can begin to understand why that great apostle Paul of Tarsus wrote that even the creation longs to “be set free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”