I picked up another one of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels, Death on the Nile. There was a wonderful exchange, full of spiritual wisdom:
[one character shows Poirot a pistol, and muses to him about how she'd like to exact revenge on her enemy]
Poirot: Mademoiselle, I beseech you, do not do what you are doing.
Jackie: Leave dear Linnet [i.e. her enemy] alone, you mean?
Poirot: It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil. ... Because--if you do--evil will come. . . . Yes, very surely evil will come. . . . It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.
It's reminiscent of James 1:15--"Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death."
Poirot's entreaty to the young woman in the story is also grounded in everyday, human experience. The incredible effort needed to break addictions, habitual sins, and weaknesses is, using his words, an attempt to drive evil out of our hearts. No easy task, and one impossible without grace.
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