Free My Name Is Chloe by Melody Carlson

He has big things for your life. And the devil wants to ruin everything.” She looked me right in the eyes now. “Honestly, I’ve never had such a strong feeling as this before, and I swear, I’ve never said anything like this to anyone before. But I truly believe that God is going to do something powerful withyour life—if you give him your heart, that is.”
    Again with the goose bumps. And then I started to cry, not big-time sobbing, but just little streams of tears flowing down my face. “But I don’t get it. I’ve been reading the redlines and I—”
    “The what ?”
    “The redlines. You know, the words in the Bible that Jesus said. When I read things like love your enemies—I just don’t get it. I can’t do it.”
    How she started snickering, as if I’d said something really funny. “Well, of course not.”
    “Of course not?”
    “Ho, you goof ball. You’re not supposed to be able to do it.”
    “But what’s the sense in that? Why does he tell us to do it if we’re not—”
    “He knows we can’t do it, silly. It’s impossible.”
    “But if it’s impossible, then what the—”
    “It’s impossible when we try to do it on our own— without Jesus. It’s only when we invite Jesus into our hearts that we become able to do these things, and only with his help. And even then we still mess up sometimes. Like remember that day in the bathroom with Tiffany Knight?”
    “Of course.”
    “I wanted to tear that creep’s hair right outta her thick-headed little skull.”
    I smiled. “Yeah, me too. In fact, I still do.”
    “Well, there’s the difference. I don’t —not anymore.”
    “You don’t?”
    “No. Not really. But if you get me going, I’ll have to go back to Jesus and ask him to help me to do better, because there’s a little something in me that still wants to hate her sometimes.”
    “So, you honestly don’t hate her?”
    She shook her head. “In fact, I’m praying for her too. And I realize that she’s just seriously miserable and wants everyone else to be miserable too.”
    Well, now that really got my head to spinning. A lot of what Laura said actually seemed to make sense, and it had to do with some of the specific questions I’ve had lately. But at the same time I felt confused.
    “I guess I still don’t really understand that part about battling for my soul, Laura. It seems sort of overblown and unbelievable.”
    She seemed to consider this and finally said, “Tell me, do you believe there’s evil in this world?”
    I considered her question before I answered. “Yeah. I guess I do. I mean, when I think of wars that kill innocent children, or starvation that’s caused by corrupt governments, or Third World countries that allow their children to beenslaved to perform hard labor, or even the bombing of the World Trade Center. Yeah, I think that’s all pretty evil.”
    “And do you think God makes those things happen?”
    I thought about that. “If he does, then I don’t think I like him very much.”
    “Okay, let me put it another way. Do you think there’s good in this world?”
    I considered this. “Well, yes, but to be honest I’ve been focusing on the evil more than the good lately. But let me think … The beauty of nature is good—mountains and trees and oceans and sunsets. And there’s goodness in little children. And when I see someone helping out their fellow man, that seems pretty good.”
    “Do you believe God has anything to do with those good things?”
    Slowly but surely it felt as if a little light was just beginning to go on. “Yes, I think maybe he does.”
    “So, okay then, you do believe in good and evil?”
    “Maybe I do.”
    “How do you think there’s power in both good and evil?”
    I thought about that and finally nodded.
    “Okay, you seem like a smart person to me, Chloe. If you believe in two completely oppositepowers, such as good and evil, do you believe they might also experience some conflict occasionally?”
    “It