On Wednesday, my daughter and I went to see the movie “Maleficent”.  My interest on seeing that movie had nothing to do with watching Angelina Jolie with the overgrown cheekbones; it was more because it seemed to be an interesting take on the story of “Sleeping Beauty”.

I liked how the story dealed with the whole Maleficent character.  I never liked how in children’s stories the evil character is all black without any good feelings at all.  I’ve always liked how in japanese animation or anime, the evil characters have always been portrayed as complicated beings dealing with their good sides.

In the movie “Maleficent” there were no blacks and whites.  There were grays; so the movie made more sense and it was less predictable.  It was just like real life…

 Each one of us has a bad side and a good side.  We all have the choice to choose which side we are gonna let loose in our lives.  What makes more sense is how we can’t predict which side of us will be the winner.  We should want the good side to take over but I often find people wanting the bad side to win.  They even feel proud when the bad side gets what it wants.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:14-25 “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I 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.  For 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.  Now 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.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

So we all have a little maleficent in us: our flesh.  It constantly fights with our spiritual side, I will call it: beneficent.

Now the question is: who will YOU let win the fight for YOUR life? Beneficent or Maleficent?

Choose wisely and you may enjoy eternal life.  God Bless You abundantly!