When was the last time........

......the demons drove you into the wild?


When was the last time..... life as you knew it stopped on a dime and you couldn't catch your breath and day after day you saw no way back to normal again?

When was the last time.......a hurt became a grudge became a quiet campaign (conducted in lower voices) to defame the source of your pain?

When was the last time.....a minor mishap became a explosion of emotion and energy that forced family and friends to duck behind some kind of shelter until the storm passed?

When was the last time....you watched as a friend moved from disappointment to fear to despair as they began to believe the voices in their heads telling them they had no worth?

There are forces in our world which want to deprive you of life.......the ease to breathe, to move among us, to walk with self-worth, to make plans for the future, to feel safe in your own body.  There are forces that will seep into our broken places and then drain us of the life that God has given us.

We have heard much in the news of the Stanford rape case.  When I read the victims letter I thought - ahhh, there are the demons at work.   I am not speaking of the man who assaulted her. That young woman spoke of her struggle against all that wanted to hold her prisoner in a place that is only dark and never light- a place of constant vigilance and fear, a place where she would forget who she was.  Rather, in the wake of that horrible experience, the victim was assaulted again and again by forces that would rob her of her future.  She has fought powerfully to find her way back to life again.  To live without fear and without hate.

I know, we modern people don't believe in demons or evil spirits, but I think that a little thought will lead us to see times when we 'just couldn't let it go' or times when 'somehow it got blown all out of proportion' or times when disappointment crushed us and made it hard to step forward again.

These are the times when our relationship with God becomes our lifeline.  It is exactly the time to remind ourselves that we are children of the Divine Creator; God knows our name and desires goodness for us.  It is exactly the time to be surrounded by others who are strong, who will say the name of Jesus and pray for our welfare.  It is exactly the time to eat bread and drink wine and be filled with our Lord's strength.

It is exactly the time to remember the day we call Good Friday when evil took hold of people's cowardice and fear and executed the one who brought healing into this world...the day evil thought it was in charge.

Then remember this.....'early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women brought spices so to anoint Jesus' body....'

but he was not there.

In the end, love wins.