“1And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 15And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.” (Mark 5:1-15)
Jesus sails across the Sea of Galilee and into the land of the Gadarenes. As he disembarks, he sees a man whose demons force him to live in the caves found between tombs and who cannot control his actions. Jesus orders the evil spirits to leave the man’s body and enter the bodies of a herd of pigs passing by. The animals become possessed, run into the water, and die. The herders witnessing these wonders are astonished and they spread the news to everyone they see. The possessed man is healed and his sanity restored. Order lies amongst all chaos and loss. We can collect the shards of destruction and build something even more magnificent and complete than what previously existed. Adversity is not a divine punishment, but rather a gift that can help us improve ourselves and recover spiritually. No person is truly enslaved to their physical circumstances; the spirit can always prevail. The possibility of change is in our hands.
There is order in both the natural and spiritual worlds; orderly studies and deeds are necessary for achieving self-improvement.
