Dark thoughts

From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander (Matthew 15:19).

In a science fiction story, a traveler passes through a small isolated country. She is surprised to find no people in the city; everything is taken care of by machines. Searching for signs of life, she soon discovers that there are indeed people, but each one lives alone in their own house at the edge of the town. The traveler tries to approach some of the residents, but they all back away in fear. Finally she finds one man who cautiously asks her, "Can you read my thoughts?" When she assures him that she cannot, he tells her why everyone lives in isolation. Years earlier, scientists had found a way to trigger telepathy in people. It was thought that if people could read each other’s minds, all conflict would cease because no one would misunderstand what another person was trying to communicate. Even better, everyone would immediately feel the pain that they were causing others; telepathy, they thought, would end all acts of violence. So every resident of this small nation underwent treatment to open their minds to each other. But there was an unforeseen result; there was no way to hide unpleasant thoughts. People were disgusted by what they learned of those they lived with, and they were too embarrassed to have others see what they were really like deep inside. Since the procedure could not be reversed, there was only one recourse—everyone moved far enough away from the others so that mind reading became impossible. Being able to see into another's heart only isolated the people from each other.

This is only a story, but it has the ring of truth. Each of us are filled with ugly thoughts and dark desires that we are reluctant to share with others. Sometimes we permit a glimpse into the dark places of our souls when we get drunk or become enraged, but most of the time we keep a tight lid on what lurks deep inside us, because we know that if others could see what we are really like inside, they would be repulsed. However, we cannot hide what’s inside us from God. Psalm 44 tells us: God…knows the secrets of the heart. What a terrifying thought! Every twisted desire is known to the Lord of the universe. But Jesus came among us to offer reassurance; although God knows how truly evil and repulsive we are, He loves us anyway. He sent His Son to address the problem of the darkness that taints us by dying in our place on the cross, shedding His holy blood to wash away the sin that stains us. Jesus lives in we who love Him, and when God looks into our forgiven hearts He does not see our ugliness, He sees instead only the beauty of Christ within us.