Persistence Pays Off
Sometimes you just have to want it badly enough.
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, 'Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered him, 'Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.' Then he said to her, 'For saying that, you may go-the demon has left your daughter.' So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. - Mark 7:24-30
Today's Gospel reading is a great example of persistence paying off.
The woman got her way by not letting Jesus have the last word. It is similar to the story Jesus tells his disciples about the man whose neighbor wants a loaf of bread in the middle of the night. It is an inconvenience for him to disrupt his family asleep in their beds to get the neighbor bread, but he does it, because the neighbor persists.
It shows that God will answer our prayers, whether we deserve to have them answered or not.
So, why give up?
If we really believe in something or we truly need something to happen to help us move forward with out mission or ministry, we have to believe it will come to pass; we have to keep trying. Persistence pays off.
Jesus comes off as the bad guy here for telling her he has priorities and she is not on the list, but it is a lesson for all of us. If we want to be on the list, and we want to move to the top, we have to speak up.
She didn't demand that he help her. She merely showed him she was worthy of his attention.
We should all try to be like her, setting our priorities and working to get them the attention they deserve, for even if they don't deserve any attention, they may still be addressed if we try heard enough.
So, let us go and try.
More to come...