Those of you familiar with the manga/anime series BLEACH would undoubtedly be well acquainted with its main protagonist, Kurosaki Ichigo.
Though he is a good guy with a heart that wants to protect the innocent, there is a dark side to his soul.. Don't we all? But the difference being in Ichigo's case, that dark side has a mind of its own... Sinister eh?
You see, there's a Hollow living inside Ichigo.
In the world of BLEACH, Hollows are evil spirits who prey on human souls -- essentially the bad guys of the series lah. And this Hollow would usurp control over Ichigo's body in his moments of weakness... going on a berserker rampage and posing a threat to everyone around.
I can relate to that... Often I feel as if there is another 'me' inside, the one that drives me to do things I know I should not be doing as a child of God.
As St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans chapter 7...
17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Many times after I've committed a sin, it felt like i've "snapped out" of a spell. And it feels terrible as I realise, "Oh nuts, what have I done?"
And other times, I know I could have stopped myself, but my sinful nature pressed me to go ahead and commit sin anyway... Such moments leave a bitter aftertaste, the feelings of shame, guilt & self reproach... Felt like spiritual schizophrenia; on one hand I'm on fire to serve God, but on the other, so easily I give in to temptation.
And that's precisely what the devil wants, for us to turn away from God precisely when we need Him the most, to forgive us and pick us up on our feet again. Like the Hollow filling Ichigo's mind with the fear that he is too weak to resist, and that soon the evil inside would consume him completely...
Seems like all is lost... but is it?
It is, as long as we rely on our strength & willpower to resist temptation, to do something we are not meant to do alone. That is why Jesus gave us the Paraclete, His Holy Spirit to be our partner so that we can accomplish what we cannot on our own efforts.
The challenge is to name our fears... to face the darkness within and acknowledge our sinfulness. As we begin to see ourselves for who we are, we can then learn to see ourselves as God sees us; His beloved sons & daughters, made in His image and lavishly showered with His eternal love & infinite mercy.
As we bring our sins into the light, submit to God and say that we cannot be righteous by our own efforts, then He can heal us... and we will know how true is His promise in Romans 8:1, that "there shall be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Ichigo too had to come out of his denial, that there is a very real darkness lurking within. He made the decision to face his fear... and it is at this time that he encountered a group of others like him, humans with great spiritual powers but had Hollows living inside them. These newfound friends trained him to control his inner Hollow, to eventually subdue it and came out stronger than ever before.
As St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans chapter 7...
17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Many times after I've committed a sin, it felt like i've "snapped out" of a spell. And it feels terrible as I realise, "Oh nuts, what have I done?"
And other times, I know I could have stopped myself, but my sinful nature pressed me to go ahead and commit sin anyway... Such moments leave a bitter aftertaste, the feelings of shame, guilt & self reproach... Felt like spiritual schizophrenia; on one hand I'm on fire to serve God, but on the other, so easily I give in to temptation.
And that's precisely what the devil wants, for us to turn away from God precisely when we need Him the most, to forgive us and pick us up on our feet again. Like the Hollow filling Ichigo's mind with the fear that he is too weak to resist, and that soon the evil inside would consume him completely...
Seems like all is lost... but is it?
It is, as long as we rely on our strength & willpower to resist temptation, to do something we are not meant to do alone. That is why Jesus gave us the Paraclete, His Holy Spirit to be our partner so that we can accomplish what we cannot on our own efforts.
The challenge is to name our fears... to face the darkness within and acknowledge our sinfulness. As we begin to see ourselves for who we are, we can then learn to see ourselves as God sees us; His beloved sons & daughters, made in His image and lavishly showered with His eternal love & infinite mercy.
As we bring our sins into the light, submit to God and say that we cannot be righteous by our own efforts, then He can heal us... and we will know how true is His promise in Romans 8:1, that "there shall be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Ichigo too had to come out of his denial, that there is a very real darkness lurking within. He made the decision to face his fear... and it is at this time that he encountered a group of others like him, humans with great spiritual powers but had Hollows living inside them. These newfound friends trained him to control his inner Hollow, to eventually subdue it and came out stronger than ever before.
It is similar in our spiritual walk, we need a Christian community to belong to. Since the beginning of creation in Genesis, God never intended man to be alone. We need to be accountable to others... to encourage us to be better, to comfort us when we fall and to share in the knowledge that we are not alone in our struggles, that the people around us also face struggles in their lives.
That is why Jesus said that the Church is a body, for together we are better than the sum of our parts. Together we can achieve what none of us can accomplish on our own. May the Holy Spirit continue to empower us every day against the works of sin in our lives.
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