According to an old Jewish saying, it took God one day to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took him 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites. Getting beyond self-pity was not easy, but God eventually won out and Israel came to look back on her story as a tale of a loving God at work bringing his people to himself. The pattern of misunderstanding, resistance, self-pity, letting go and saying ‘yes’ to God in thanksgiving, was repeated many times to Israel’s story. The struggle to let go of self-pity and choose to be happy in a world of limitations continues today in our faith journey. In all of it, a life of faith continues to mature into a life of thanksgiving for God’s victory over our resistance. (Bishop Martin Drennan)