We point fingers.

At people. At things. At opportunities missed. At emotions we can’t control. At problems we can’t solve.

We struggle to put that accountability on something. Anything.

But what about when a real tragedy hits without warning? What happens when a little girl gets diagnosed with terminal cancer? Or a soldier never returns home to his wife after fighting for our country? What about when a hundred people are shot for no reason other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?

What then?

Some point fingers at God. Why did you do this to me? God, why are you letting this happen?

Others point their angry fingers towards fate or poor timing; however, many turn their agony to evil itself.

But… what is evil?

Is evil something we can feel, touch, see? Or is it something far greater than our minds are capable of pulling apart?

We see evil in quick flashes. Bruises where they don’t belong, car wrecks with no one to save, gun shots ringing out in silence.

But can we pinpoint it? Can we look evil in the eye and yell and cry until our hoarse voices ache with all the words left unsaid? Can we grip evil at its very throat and kill it just as it has killed off so many of our loved ones?

Or is evil an opponent we must all face in our own personal battles? And if that’s the case… is there a fight we can ever truly ‘win’?

For how are we, mere humans, supposed to stop an astronomical beast as great as evil? There can be no combat in which humans trump the ultimate cause of tragedy.

Or is there?

When I picture evil, I picture 9/11. Others think of cancer, the Holocaust, war...any situation where innocent lives are taken away with no remorse. Some imagine evil in the form of people like Adolf Hitler or ISIS. But the question still remains:

What can win the fight against evil?

Prayer? Ignorance? Anger?

Or is it something bigger, and yet so much simpler?

Whenever an awful event occurs in our world, many people immediately pour their hearts out with words of anger, disgust, and hatred. And rightfully so. Because evil has clawed away a piece of them and made them incomplete. The pain evil brings on people’s hearts is not at all gentle. Evil rushes in full force, ready to dig its fangs into innocent kids, harmless things, and defenseless people. We don’t even have a moment to gather up our families and hide; to run from the ultimate, unstoppable fear.

The nagging, horrible feeling of knowing that evil can catch up to you at any time and that you can do nothing to stop it is incredibly intimidating.

...but isn’t that what makes us live?

Isn’t the looming fear that any day might be our last a great enough motivation to make us feel alive? Isn’t it the unknown that pushes us to make every moment count?

We have no idea what will happen each day we peel open our eyes and wish for one more minute of blissful slumber. But isn’t that the last thought of those who evil has taken away too soon? Don’t they swiftly, if not silently, beg for one last moment of life? A moment to say goodbye’s and I love you’s to those who have lived so lovingly and loyally by their sides?

Evil can slaughter so many souls, and yet, give us so much to live for. Evil may be this world’s greatest threat, but isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it wonderful that this great mass of death and destruction is no match for our motivation to live? This looming, ominous monster can rip apart our lives bit by bit, and yet… we still love. We still love those people, those things, those moments it has taken away from us. We still love each other and most of all we still love life. Evil motivates us to capture these moments of joy life grants us and to never let them go.

The unimaginable heartbreak and agony evil brings upon this world is unfathomable. And sometimes that light of motivation inside each of us dims down to a single flame. But you know what? It keeps burning. For we are like candles, igniting each day to prove to evil, to ourselves, and to each other that life is worth living. It is worth fighting for. We burn and breathe each day for those evil has taken away from us.

Because we do have a defense against evil. And that defense? That defense is to live. To live fearlessly and fully. Don’t we owe it to those souls that evil has assassinated before our very eyes? Don’t we owe it to ourselves?

Our greatest defense against the toxic shadow that continually haunts us is our

will to live. Remember this defense in times of utter tragedy. This world faces adversity and horror at the worst times and in the worst ways but, if we fight to keep living, we can win the war against evil.