The Dark Side

Two news stories have caught my eye this week. Both reminded me that all of us have things about us that no-one else knows.

The first story came from the latest events surrounding the murder of Scott Guy in Feilding. After there being almost 9 months of no obvious suspects, the police arrested and charged the brother-in-law of Mr Guy with his murder. It must be stressed at this time, the case is before the courts, and with that in mind, a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. However, some of the comments from family members regarding Ewen MacDonald stood out for me.

One can only imagine the agony of Anna MacDonald, wife of Ewen and sister of Scott, as she wrestles with whether it was her husband took her brother's life. Talking of this agony, she said "I just can't imagine it. But I could be so wrong and I might not know the person that I thought I did. He might have a secret side to him that I didn't know about. But I don't know how you would hide it for this long. We've known each other for 15 years. We will have been married 10 years this year. I thought I knew him really well." (The original article reporting this can be found here)

Whether Mr MacDonald is guilty or not, the fact is that we all have a secret side that no-one else knows about. There are things we think, places we go, sometimes things we say, attitudes we have that no-one else knows. Who we are when no-one else is looking is the real us. And, if we're going to be honest with ourselves and to others, we all have a dark side that we'd rather no-one else knew about. For most of us, that dark side remains a secret between us and God, but sometimes, those secrets become known.

Jesus hinted at this when He said “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23) It's those secrets we hold within us that reveal the real us.

A bit later in the week, I saw a news clip which rather amusingly showed someone being found out for who they really were. The President of the Czech Republic was sharing a Press Conference with the President of Chile, when he was caught stealing a pen from the stage. Unfortunately for him, the whole Press Conference was being filmed, and the footage has since gone viral. It all takes me back to wise words from the Bible that my mum used to often say to me as a child "Be sure your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23)

Both stories were a good reminder that no matter how good people can sometimes be (& I have no doubting the potential goodness in us all), that we all have the dark side, the things we'd rather keep hidden. In front of God, however, all secrets are open.