When I reached what I thought was my lowest point, somebody said to me: "Cheer up; things could be worse." So I cheered up and, sure enough, things got worse.

That line did not originate with me. But it could have been written by this poor, unnamed man in Luke's little parable. The man once harbored a demon. Then the demon left, or was expelled ... the story doesn't say. The demon wandered the desert in search of lodging. Finding none, it returned to the man. In the meantime, the man had swept, scrubbed and tidied his soul. So the demon went out and collected seven demons worse than itself. Whereupon they entered in. And the Bible says that the man's "last state" was considerably worse than his first.

It's a great little story ... easy to visualize, albeit hard to understand. But don't b…