I watched an intriguing movie last night called Mercy Road. In the movie, a visibly upset man was driving his truck at night and something traumatic had obviously occurred. His cell phone was ringing constantly; he took some calls while others did not. He took one from ‘Unknown’, and the caller spoke in a dulcet and pleasing voice. The driver had semi-regular bouts of screaming and beating the steering wheel of the vehicle and seemed to be on the edge of an emotional cliff. He had seen a photo of his daughter being sexually abused by her stepfather and had subsequently gone to the house of his ex-wife, daughter, and stepfather and murdered the stepfather. His bizarre journey was to find his daughter. Unknown assured him that if he followed his instructions he would reveal where his daughter was and that he could rescue her before she ran out of oxygen. The screaming man on the verge of going over the edge follows the instructions of the seemingly rational caller with the answers needed and at the end of the movie he is killed and his daughter is in the back seat of his truck.

Unknown’s ethereal voice told the daughter that it had been a pleasure to know her and he had enjoyed doing business with her as she smiled.

So it goes…we listen to what appears to be the voice of reason, calmness, and certainty while we drive headlong toward destruction. We are hearers of both the inner voice and of those to whom we listen. It is easy to succumb to an oily and skilled speaker.

Whether it be a habit that harms us, an attitude that is counterproductive to our success…or thoughts from others that we already believe and want to be reinforced…we like to listen to the banal voice of evil.

When a leader tells us to listen only to them and that they have the answer to our problems…watch out. Easy answers are usually wrong. We play the lottery and we take another drink of courage from our favorite vodka or our physician has prescribed a pill for our troubles…yet we have no peace.

Often I was exhorted to make things easier on myself when I was a manager/administrator at Southern Illinois University. I was advised that no one put the extra hours in that I did. After having my staff greatly reduced I was assured that the buildings ‘should’ be dirtier. I was told I need not offer opportunities to people who require extra effort and training.

Have you ever seen a cartoon of a person who has a little angel sitting on the shoulder of a questioning person and a little devil sitting on the other? Or perhaps the hiker who comes to a fork in the road and sees a luxurious green and pleasant trail and the other choice is full of rock and boulders and obstructions of all kinds…

The most memorable and frightening depiction of the devil was a movie that I saw many years ago where a little girl was bouncing a ball as a man and wife were driving a dark foreboding road. She had the look of innocence and love until the last scene where the couple had a car wreck and…and she was now bouncing the man’s head…