House of Alcina

He’s a murderer, a terrorist, and about as evil as fictional characters come. But if today’s prompt is asking which villain actually had a good point, I think the Joker deserves a mention for one reason.

He believed that people are a lot less stable than they pretend to be.

His whole philosophy was that most of us are only a few bad days away from becoming someone we never imagined we’d be. Strip away comfort, security, reputation, and certainty, and suddenly our character gets tested in ways we never expected. I don’t think he’s entirely wrong.

Life has a way of exposing what’s really inside us. Losing a loved one. A financial disaster. A betrayal. A serious illness. Those moments reveal our character far more than the easy seasons ever could.

Where the Joker gets it completely wrong is what comes next.

He believed suffering proves that everyone is just as broken and corrupt as he is.

I don’t.

I think hardship doesn’t just reveal who we are. It gives us a choice about who we’ll become. Some people become bitter. Some become cruel. Some become hopeless.

And some become stronger, kinder, and more dependent on God than they ever were before.

The Joker had a point that adversity exposes character.

He was just completely wrong about what faithful people can choose to do with it.