Mark 5:17 “And they began to pray him that he might depart out of their coasts.”
True Values
Earlier this year, my family and I were at a truck stop in Pennsylvania. The store was dirty; the employees were slow, cranky, and unfriendly; and an error on their part ended up costing me several minutes that I could not afford to lose as a traveler. On my way out of the truck stop, I noticed a huge framed sign that displayed their mission statement: “fast, friendly service for weary travelers in a clean environment.” I like that mission statement, but someone should’ve told the people running the place!
What is your mission statement? What is important to you? What do you value? What you do accurately shows what you value. In Mark chapter 5, a man possessed with a legion of devils was gloriously transformed by the Lord Jesus. The Lord cast out the devils into a herd of swine, and the man was “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.” A man gained his right mind but some pig farmers lost a herd of swine.
It is interesting that the ones who lost their swine “began to pray him to depart out of their coasts,” but the man who was healed “prayed him that he might be with him.” They wanted the Lord to leave; the man wanted Jesus to come. Just like the people in this account in Mark, your values are revealed by who you are willing to follow and what you are willing to lose.
Everyone follows someone, and it might be worthy of your time to stop and consider who you are following. Our natural tendency is to follow someone because we want money, knowledge, or purpose. Who are you following, and why?
Everyone follows someone, and everyone loses something. You choose what you lose by choosing who you follow. What are you willing to lose? These pig farmers valued a bunch of pigs more than a neighbor. They were not bothered about the devils possessing their neighbor until they affected their pigs!
What is your mission statement? What do your actions reveal about what you truly value?