#9 Your Inner Darkness

He was a good man, but he carried a knife.

-Don Falcone

Every piece of bat-content wrestles with the idea of an inner darkness. That sounds so cool to say, but what is it and how do we tap into it? Or, perhaps a good question is should we tap into it. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I want to tackle this beast of a topic little piece at a time, so today we will be talking about what it is, and some of my thoughts on its value. 

Basically, your inner darkness is your ability to do stuff that bad guys do. It’s the urge to throw hands with that bully that smacked you upside the head. It’s the temptation to hurt people that hurt you. In a dark, cruel world, it’s almost like gravity, pulling you down from within with decisions that don’t feel like they have a right or wrong choice. In short, it’s the path to be a bad guy. 

Now, you might be thinking “if your inner darkness is, as you put it, ‘your path to being a bad guy,’ then we should obviously avoid it!” I think that’s not quite right. Can you imagine a pacifist superhero? It almost seems essential to us that a superhero throws punches and hurts bad guys, right? But now we are starting to see a line forming: a difference between a hero and a villain. What similarities and differences can we draw between the two? 

In short, the difference between a good guy and a bad guy is who gets the whoopin’. Good guys give bad guys whoopins, and bad guys give everyone whoopins. But the tricky thing is how to decide who’s a bad guy, and who’s a good guy. We might see someone mugging an old lady and think that they’re a bad guy. But when we realize that they are just trying to feed their family, it gets a little harder to tell who’s truly bad. 

Personally, I’m not so naive that I actually think that everyone isn’t so bad. Some people are just plain evil, period. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. They just like power and abusing it to get stuff that they want. But others just get lost as they lose their power in life. They lose their jobs and lie to make some money for their kid’s surgery, steal to keep from starving and step on others just to survive. 

I think that’s why self control is so important. Yes, give that bully a good whoopin! But be able to stop when he has learned that he can’t pick on you, or anyone around you. Don’t go overboard for the heck of it. Learn to quit when enough is enough. I like to think that this “inner darkness” is your superpower. Spider-man can stick to walls, Superman can do, well, everything, and you can get angry. It’s scary to get angry because we don’t get angry very often. We wait until it boils over to ever use that force inside of us. And a power we don’t know how to control is very dangerous indeed. We need to learn to control the anger and use it for the right reasons when they come up.

But where does Jesus stand in all of this? Would the bible disagree with what I just said? We could call up a verse like proverbs 15:1 that tells us that a gentle answer turns away wrath. Couldn’t our inner darkness be like the harsh word that stirs up anger? I actually don’t think so. Not just because it’s impractical to stop people without force, but the same God that is known for spreading peace and love also commands his people to fight. I think if we look at Jesus' life, we will find our answer. 

The only times Jesus ever gets rowdy is when the “religious leaders” come around. They come after Him directly and attack all that is good in the world. But what makes them worth fighting is that they have the confidence and power to be a force for evil. People who are sad, lost and hopeless are open to change. They come running with open arms when help arrives because they’re crushed from the weight of sin. But people who are proud, who think they have it all figured out-those guys put up a fight. When they look in the mirror, they see gods, so when the actual God comes around, they just see someone trying to take their precious power. And it’s those guys who say “my will be done,” that need to be stopped. Not killed, just stopped. But stopped with enough force that they don’t want to get back up. 

So that’s inner darkness in a nutshell. I think it’s a good thing. It’s like a kitchen knife or a sledgehammer: good when it’s put in its proper place. But when it’s not, it makes for a bad time. So over the next couple of days, start taking note of people who are actually evil who need to be stood up to. You don’t have to do anything, but take note of the wrong that they are doing, and whether or not they are a lost puppy, or an evil tyrant. Then give yourself permission to get mad when they do bad stuff. Because bad stuff is bad and we can’t pretend it’s not. 

I pray that a force of power begins to rise up inside of you as you begin to see the darkness within, and how you can use it for good.

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.