He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
-Matthew 5:45
The range of humanity is absolutely enormous. The capacity for good and evil within our race can make your head spin. The same species that has landed a man on the moon, cured diseases, and written sonnets has also created a nuclear bomb, organized global sex-trade networks and human trafficking rings, and built concentration camps.
Both good and evil proceed from this fragile human frame we all share. Both Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler found themselves trapped inside skin and blood and bones. Michelangelo and the unibomber breathed the same air into the same pair of lungs. Billy Graham and Osama Bin Laden both have to eat.
I'm not trying to label "good people" versus "bad people." More often than not we see examples of extreme good present right along with extreme evil in the same individual. Some of the most gifted artists in history have lead some of the most depressed and suicidal lives imaginable. Charlie Parker, a legend among jazz musicians, died alone in a hotel room after a lifestyle of heroin abuse (the coroner estimated him to be between 55 and 60 years old, when in reality he was only 34). Vincent Van Gogh tragically ended his own life by firing a bullet through his heart. The apostle Paul baptized believers in his lifetime and also slaughtered them like animals. And on a more personal note, I was shocked today to discover that a former teacher of mine (who had been a very positive influence throughout high school) had been arrested around this time last year in a sex-related public indecency scandal.
And then there's you and me.
It's examples like these that clearly expose our condition as humans. We're fractured and above all inconsistent. We bless and curse in the same breath. We build up one minute, and tear down the next. Integrity is lacking. We each have it in us to be murderers, adulterers, and liars. We also have it in us to be the very sons and daughters of God - the most beautifully creative and peacefully satisfied people for whom creation itself yearns.
If anything, it makes me take a second look at how I think I'm performing. My own light will never erase my darkness, and by the same token my darkness will never disqualify my light. Neither extreme carries as much weight as I think it does. We all need a savior. We all need re-birth.
In the meantime, God is kind to all. He patiently extends one hand to a drunkard and the other hand to a choir boy. In this earth, the wheat grows up along with the tares, and the sun shines on both good and evil men.
