Mr. Scratch pt. 2

     Note: This is the second post of the Mr. Scratch series.

 Depeche Mode - Master And Servant

     Mr. Scratch, the Natural man, the evil wolf.... There are countless names for our adversary. It is important to understand that our worst enemy is literally a part of us. There are outside forces, yes, but unless we let them in or do something about them they cannot hurt us. How and why would we let them in? That is what this part of us wants us to do, destroy ourself.
     How is this possible? How does that make any sense, that a part of us wants to destroy us? Honestly, it shouldn't make sense, it is a natural part of us though, a testament to our imperfection. Because God is not completely in us, we have an empty space, one that is instantly filled with Mr. Scratch once we are born. Mr. Scratch is really just the the physical representation of the absence of God, the absence of good, much like darkness is just the absence of light. One who wants carnal and physical pleasure, one who really likes to "feel good" and is willing to do anything to get it. Sadly most of those things and ways of getting them are not good, and will ultimately destroy us, but that is not how Mr. Scratch sells them. He makes them wanted, even needed.
     Why Mr. Scratch? What is significant about that name at all? Well, Mr. (or Old Scratch) is a referance from pre civil war America and was a slang term for the devil. Nowadays a few authors and movies refer it, including Alan Wake. Alan Wake represents Mr. Scratch as himself, a different part part that looks the exact same as Alan. Mr. Scratch takes over his life and tries to ruin it, indulging in the most evil desires as Alan. This was because Alan chose to have it happen, because he let Mr. Scratch in, and now he has to deal with him and try to destroy him.
     Now we have to do the same, as our Mr. Scratch is already in us. He is fighting not for anything good, but everything bad. He disguises it to make it look like it is good, but I promise, it is not. Mr. Scratch can "take control" of us only when we let him. His ultimate plan is to take away our happiness, and he does that by first trying to take away our agency.

Mr. Scratch is a part of our lives. We must accept that. We cannot get rid of him nor his influence completely, not while we must still walk this earth as mortals, but I promise that we can turn his volume down. We can make him as small as possible until the day that our Savior's grace will destroy him. We must make him as small as possible.It is the only way we can stay away from his incredibly evil designs, and the only way we can make it back to happiness and light.
     Look at it this way, our mortal life is like being in a dark tunnel, and we can see the light at the end. Now when we get to the end we know that we need to seal the tunnel, as there is evil there. We know that we need a wall to stop it. God has told us however, that we are not to even think about building that wall until we are already past the tunnel. We are only instructed to make sure that we get out. Now Mr. Scratch knows that we know that the tunnel needs to be closed, and that Mr. Scratch himself will be stuck there. He wants your company, and so he persuades you to start laying a couple bricks here and there, saying that when you finally leave the tunnel, building the wall will not take as long. He keeps saying this until you realize you are trapped helplessly in the tunnel, because you sealed the tunnel from the wrong side. You are now damned, you can see the light but because of your actions you cannot get there. You will always see what could have been but you will never be able to get it. There is hope until the very end however that you can tear down that wall, with the right help of course. You have to realize that your "friend" Mr. Scratch is in fact your enemy, and then to rely on the help of our wonderful Savior.
     Now here is an interesting tidbit about Mr. Scratch that is not so readily known, and yet it is usually his greatest tool in us: our pride. Yes, everything we do, good or bad, in the name of our pride helps keep Mr. Scratch a little closer to us, lets his whispers start to slowly become louder, until they are screaming horrible things at us. Pride is almost always our ultimate demise when it comes to gateway sins. Think of it, how easy is it to be a sore loser? How easy is it to want, and even try revenge? This is Mr. Scratch's desire, for us to puff ourselves above our friends, above our family, and ultimately above God. We start to act because it helps our image instead of doing something because God told us to or we want to help someone. Our agency starts to become dependant on our pride, destroying our agency. We can't, we won't act simply because it is against our image or popularity. Even doing good things become tainted because we are doing them to get noticed. Everything we do becomes only for us and our desires. Very quickly we can start to get nasty, feeling entitled, and maybe even turn violent. We cannot fall into his trap, but how? How do we make sure that we do not make him our master, and us his servant?

How?

The next, and final post will tell.