JULY212025

When the going got tough the Hebrew children got … cranky? “Far better for us to be the slaves of the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”  Of course they had complained when they were slaves in Egypt. But now, confronted with the fact that their liberation from slavery was going to be difficult, was going to make demands upon them, they wanted to opt out, to go back to the familiar. There is an expression: better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. The Hebrews might not have liked slavery but they knew they could endure it. They weren’t sure they could endure the challenge of liberation where Moses was leading them.  That story is repeated in our lives again and again. We know that we should change, that we need to become more kind, forgiving, compassionate. But change is hard. It will cost us some of our comfort. Happily Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit of wisdom and strength to help us to change.