I believe it was a message by Loren Cunningham (founder of Youth With a Mission) I heard years ago speaking about choosing “swine over the Savior.” It was the story of the demoniac in Mark 5.

The demoniac was a real problem in that area, but when Jesus healed the man, the people of the region weren’t so happy. Jesus had cost them their livelihood by sending the demons into the pigs and the pigs had run into the lake and drowned. There was fear because they knew a greater power was in their midst and they didn’t know what to do.

The demoniac had been a problem, but he had become a known quantity. They could deal with the dysfunction enough to tolerate being tormented from time to time. But when Jesus came and his power was obviously greater, they became fearful.

Too many times we tolerate the “demoniac” (or dysfunction) in our lives because the pain of change seems greater. When the possibility of change comes from outside ourselves, in a greater power, we just may fear. We don’t know the power of the Kingdom and we might actually fear it. 

We may end up tolerating a few “pigs” in our lives because we don’t really want the power of God.