“Strangely enough” Dr Johns said when they continued with their walk, “Satan is not material. He needs a human to become visible.” These translated words from the book "Een vir Azazel"by Etienne Leroux, occupied my thoughts for a long time.

 

To me the idea of satan has always been very difficult to conceptualise and grapple with. It is not that I do not believe in a source of evil, but it is such a strange and incomprehensible idea. I can believe that God always wants the very best for me, but I struggle with the idea of an evil force that always wants bad things happening to me.

 

God uses us to do good things in the world, but if he wanted to, he could pour out his goodness all over the world without our help. On the other hand, bad and evil things only happen when people make themselves available to do evil. Evil, according to Leroux, only becomes visible when a human is involved.

 

Evil does not necessarily mean big and serious things like war and crime or evil figures from the past or present. We should never forget that evil could hide in everyday things that we do. I am going to translate a piece of what poet, NP van Wyk Louw, wrote in his poem, "Ballade van die Bose", or as translated, "Ballad of the Evil One". "Many people think they know my face, but I am hiding too close to the light." What we do and say may not appear evil at first glance, but it can ruin other people’s lives.

 

Paul wrote to the church in Rome cautioning them to be aware so that they are not defeated by evil. We have to conquer evil by doing good. The busier I am doing good, the less time I will have to do bad things.