Demons

There's a story in the Gospels when Jesus crosses a body of water, lands near a cemetery, and encounters a man possessed by (as it turns out, "many") demons. The townsfolk have done everything they can with this man, including putting him under guard, chaining him up, banishing him to the cemetery. Nothing they do seems to work. 

Then Jesus, with a word, drives the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs, who immediately send themselves running over a cliff. 

You don't have to believe in spiritual warfare (although you should) to find the practical applications and encouragement in this story. 

All you have to believe, at bare minimum, is that we are all fighting things that are bigger than us. 

And if that's true, then can we please give this demoniac (the man in the cemetery) his due? 

That's the place to start.

Here is a man whose life is so out of control that other folks don't even know what to do with him. They've tried, but the best they can come up with is to basically put him in prison. They've put guards on him. They've put chains on him. They've removed him from their society. That alone is enough to discourage a man. 

But then, somehow, he keeps on keepin' on anyway. 

And listen, it's not like the townspeople forget about him. It's not like they don't know who he is. When he's healed, they see him and recognize who he is. They've always known. 

And he's naked at this point. They know everything. There's no hiding here what he's dealing with. 

Such is the life of someone who is struggling with something bigger than themselves. It's not like the world doesn't see you. It's not like they don't know. It's not like they forget you're out there or forget who you are. They know. You're pretty naked, quite honestly. They just...prefer you to be somewhere separate from them. Somewhere "safe" - they say that's for you, but it's really for them. They want you a safe distance from them while you wrestle with your demons. 

But the fact that this guy keeps on keepin' on in the face of great social harm and interpersonal pain isn't even the half of it. That would be hard enough for any of us. 

But no, this guy is not only living with the ostracization and the judgment and the stigma...he's also living with, as it turns out, "many," demons who would throw an entire herd of pigs off a cliff the first chance they get. 

Think about that for a second. This guy's demons are so powerful that the minute they are not restrained by...what? by an act of sheer human will?...they immediately kill their host. Immediately. And this guy has been living with these demons for...how long? Without them killing him?

That's some tremendous will to live. That's some amazing act of pure want.

Maybe it's hope. Maybe he believed that one day, he wouldn't be like this. Maybe he remembered a time past when he wasn't like this. Maybe he had a family from before all this happened, and he was just waiting to be able to hug his kids again. When it would be safe for him to do so. Maybe this just isn't how he wanted to go out. Maybe this wasn't the first hard time he'd faced, and he'd gotten through all the others. 

We don't know. All we know is that there was something in this guy that was letting him hold on in the face of tremendous odds - alone, abandoned, untouchable, uncontrollable, out of his mind, possessed by his demons. And somehow, he hadn't run off a cliff yet. 

So can we please start by giving this guy some credit here?