Struggles and more struggles

We all see evil and its effects, especially on people. It is ugly. It causes us to struggle.
But, isn't it interesting that a lot of people are evil because of various struggles.
Struggle, struggle, and more struggle....

From song 'I Look To You' by Whitney Houston:

Winter storms have come
And darkened my sun
After all that I've been through
Who on earth can I turn to

I look to you
I look to you
After all my strength is gone
In you I can be strong

...
My levees are broken
My walls coming down on me....

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pze_mdbOK8&list=PLmYXTlZN4bBLiYNV-KrhlU0dV3NS6jpHQ&index=17)

Ambition

In life, men are always striving - striving for a better job with higher income, striving for excellence, and so on. We are on a quest for great achievement and happiness. Everyone wants to be somebody.

A lot of people are driven to do evil to achieve much. Maybe we are born evil beings - evil tendencies "kick in" at the right time. It is a struggle to be good (rather than evil), to always make wise choices, to resist temptation, and so on. Keep up the fight!

Songs that remind us we can easily be greedy and evil.....

I Want It All
"I want it all, the fame and the fortune and more....."

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5xxSRvl5VM&index=3&list=PLmYXTlZN4bBLiYNV-KrhlU0dV3NS6jpHQ)


I'm Bad By Michael Jackson
"You know I'm bad, I'm bad, you know it...."

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd4SJVsTulc&list=PLmYXTlZN4bBLiYNV-KrhlU0dV3NS6jpHQ&index=5)

Do you know yourself - the good, the bad and the ugly?
What is in your heart?

From the song 'I'm A Bitch I'm A Lover' by Alanis Morissette:

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother,
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint, I do not feel ashamed.
I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between,
You know you wouldn't want it any other way.

https://youtu.be/_ivt_N2Zcts

"Pleasure is the first good. It is the beginning of every choice and every aversion. It is the absence of pain in the body and of troubles in the soul."
- Epicurus

"The fact that all animals and men pursue pleasure is some indication that it is in some way the highest good."
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

From the song 'Evil' by Stevie Wonder:

Evil, why have you engulfed so many hearts...Evil
Evil, why have you destroyed so many minds...
Leaving room for darkness, where lost dreams can hide.

Evil, why do you infest our purest thoughts, with hatred.
Evil, why have you stolen so much love...
Leaving everyone's emotions lost and wandering free.

Evil, why have you taken over God's children's eyes...Evil
Evil, before they could really grow to see,
That your way, is not the way, to make, life what it should be, Yea, yea, yea
Evil, why have you destroyed, you've destroyed so much of this doggone world...Evil
Evil, oh, why have you broken so many homes...
Leaving everyone's emotions lost and wandering free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX6SWmOwJCo

"Man has always been dexterous at confusing evil with good. That was Adam's and Eve's problem, and it is our problem today. If evil were not made to appear attractive, there would be no such thing as temptation."
- Billy Graham

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil."
- Hannah Arendt

"All human beings are commingled out of good and evil."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil."
- Laurell K. Hamilton

"We're all caught up in circumstances, and we're all good and evil. When you're really hungry, for instance, you'll do anything to survive. I think the most evil thing - well, maybe that's too strong - but certainly a very evil thing is judgment, the sin of ignorance."
- Anthony Hopkins

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 

MainMessageForToday
Doing good rather than evil is easier said than done. Lots of people struggle with this.

"A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most. On Other Peoples Expectations: The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me."
- George Bernard Shaw

"All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy."
- Scott Alexander

MainMessageForToday
One struggle is the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil. Discipline helps.

"Conflict is neither good nor bad. Properly managed, it is absolutely vital."
— Kenneth Kaye

"A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most. On Other Peoples Expectations: The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me."
- George Bernard Shaw

"There’s no getting around it: we all struggle with sin (Romans 3:23). Even the great apostle Paul lamented over his ongoing struggle with sin in his life: 'For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." (Romans 7:18-20).
- GotQuestions.org, http://www.gotquestions.org/struggling-with-sin.html

"All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy."
- Scott Alexander