Now I know the full power of evil. It makes ugliness seem beautiful and goodness seem ugly and weak. – August Strindberg, The Dance of Death
It’s not the face of evil. It is just a mask. So you’d think evil is beautiful and strong. So you’d think it’s desirable. But it is not. It’s just a mask.
And you are fooled by the mask. You thought you could achieve your heart’s desires. You thought you could do good. You thought your life could be meaningful. But then it’s just a mask.
The mask convinced you hatred is good, that it is power! That violence is glorious and that peace is cowardice.
The mask convinced you that war is necessary. That you can save many while damning some.
The mask convinced you that you’re wise. That you are wiser than those who aren’t resourceful enough, those who can’t be tough enough to believe that the end will always justify the means.
But in the end you’ll see, that it is just a mask.
The face of evil is behind it. The face that will terrify you! The face that will laugh at you when you realize… that you have been fooled… that everything good and beautiful about it was just a mask.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden,
but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”
The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die,
for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
– Genesis 3:1-5 (WEB)
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"