Determination in the Light of Adversity!

 As I read today's Scripture readings, Hebrews 11: 32-40 and Mark 5: 1-20, my reaction led me to cry out: OMG!  In the first reading, Paul speaks about prophets "who  by faith conquered kingdoms, did what was righteous, obtained the promises; they closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, escaped the devouring sword; out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle, and turned  back foreign invaders. Women received back their dead through resurrection. Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Other endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword's point" and "the world was not worthy of them," says Paul!  In the Gospel, Jesus encountered a man possessed by a Legion of demons. On one could help this man. "Day and night among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones."  "...he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him."

Could life get any worse, I asked myself! Then I thought of Jesus, who chose to become one of us, to enter our world, experience all that we experience: man's inhumanity to man, the demons' determination to afflict us and, yes, the power of the resurrection! 

Life can throw us curve balls and we can even get hit my one, knocked off our feet, so to speak, sometimes taken out of commission for a while. Sometimes we seem to, initially, be unable to get up but get up, we do!  Yes, life can be overwhelming from time to time! But we, too, are strengthened in our weaknesses, made strong by the battles we endure and take on! We, too, can experience resurrections from that which seems to have the power to zap positive energy away from us! However, at the end of a horrible day, we turn off the lights, go to sleep and wake up refreshed, restored, renewed in our hope and trust and determination to begin again all in God's name and by God's power at work in us throughout the night and now at the beginning of a new day!  God be praised!