Does the prospect of losing your mind ever frighten you? Does it disturb you that you might lose your grip on reality and begin to believe in things that are not real? Sanity is a fragile state. It can be so easily broken.
Well, no matter what happens, you won’t be alone. Billions of people today believe in things that are not real. Every time we allow someone’s lie to stir up hatred or worry in us, we’re behaving a little like a crazy person. Every time we fail to acknowledge all the blessings around us, aren’t we also a little crazy? If we’re oblivious to the millions of things that uphold our very existence (e.g. the air we breathe, the heart that beats within our chest, the kidneys that filter our blood, etc.) aren’t we out of touch with reality?
A Blurred Line of Sanity
Every time we sle
ep, we experience a little bit of insanity. We’re completely out of touch with reality as we experience the strange and confusing world of dreams. Therefore, we’ve all experienced our share of insanity.
If we measure sanity on the basis of how conscious we are of reality, then everyone has drifted into the zone of craziness. A child who believes he or she is the center of the universe is grossly oblivious to a greater reality. It’s a form of insanity they must outgrow if they are to function properly in the world.
Therefore, the line between sanity and insanity is disturbingly blurred. The vast majority of us dwell in the gray area—believing a lot of false information and being oblivious to much more. Indeed, if we compare what we know with what we do not know, then our consciousness is only a little better than that of a snail or a worm.
God cares for us
Yet think about it. Someone is taking care of us all the time we struggle with our limited mentality. Without our intervention or awareness, Someone keeps our hearts beating 115,000 times each day, pumping 1.2 to 1.5 gallons of nutrient-rich blood through 60,000 miles of veins and capillaries to nourish the 37.5 trillion cells that make up our bodies. I don’t control the 17,000 to 30,000 breaths my lungs take each day. I’m not even conscious of them. God is taking care of it for me. In fact, God only entrusts me with a tiny bit of my health—the fun things: resting, eating, and drinking. He runs the other 99.99 percent of keeping me alive. I am being cared for by God—every moment of the day, whether I’m conscious of it or not.
Our salvation cannot hang upon us or anything we do.
If this is true in the physical, then it’s certainly true in the spiritual realm. Our salvation cannot hang upon us or anything we do. Christ died for us when we were helpless sinners (Rom. 5:6–8). He reconciled us when we were His enemies (Rom. 5:9–10). Jesus cleansed us when our souls were hopelessly stained (1 John 1:7–10). He made us alive when we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1–3). And God continues to perfect the good work of salvation in us and will continue to do so until Jesus returns (1 Cor. 1:7–8; Phil. 1:6; 2:12–13; 1 Thess. 5:23–24; Jude 24–25).
Even In Alzheimer’s
And our sanity or insanity will have no bearing upon it. God who watches over us when we sleep (Pss. 3:5; 121:3–4) will care for our souls even if dementia should break our hold on reality.
I once read the story of a pastor who cared for his mother in the last throes of Alzheimer’s disease. To comfort herself this devout Christian woman repeatedly quoted the verse from 2 Timothy 1:12: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him until that day.” As the disease continued to shrink her mind there was less and less of the verse that she could remember. Before long all she could repeat was, “He is able to keep what I’ve committed to Him.” Finally, just before she died, she was still quoting a tiny fragment of that verse: “Him,” “Him,” “Him.”
The disease came between her and her grasp on reality. But it did not come between her and God’s love. “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:29).
PRAYER:
Dear Father in Heaven, to You alone I entrust my soul and my entire being. Please save me and preserve me in Jesus Christ Your Son. Only His blood can cleanse me and only His power can save and keep me. Only His resurrection can raise and glorify me. Amen.
Photos: Public Domain
Brain scan by the U.S. Air Force. Licensed under U.S. Govt. Work.
