I think we all have times where our thinking is wrong – I
know I do. I find it interesting that
someone in an angry state is called “mad”.
Actually, “mad” is a very fitting term for that kind of fit of temporary
insanity. Sometimes being in the wrong mind is self-induced through chemical
abuse or choosing to live in sin. The longer one lives with a bad attitude, the
more normal it becomes. The more normal
it seems, the stranger a right mind becomes.
Recently, I bought a homeless guy lunch. After buying the food, he wanted me to stay
and talk. I did. We talked about various things, but he wasn’t
in his right mind. His thoughts jumped
from one “channel” to the next, as if someone else with a TV remote had
control. We talked about spiritual
things, but he didn’t really understand Jesus.
I left him with a full belly and something to think about.
Now, I don’t know if I had met someone possessed by a demon,
but it was a pretty strange conversation.
Or maybe he thought I was pretty strange. At any rate, our minds did not mesh. The
thing that normalizes thinking is really a who, Jesus. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus:” Philippians 2:5.
The reaction of the people in this passage is one of
rejection. They felt threatened by
normality. Instead of rejoicing that this man was now clothed and in his right
mind, they told Jesus to get lost. I found this true when I trusted Christ as
my Savior. People didn’t want me or Jesus
around. It seems that they are scared of sanity.
“Then they went out to
see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils
were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind:
and they were afraid. They also which saw it told them by what means he that
was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the country
of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were
taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.”
Luke 8:35-37.
© copyright Kevin T Boekhoff
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