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Insanity

Occasionally you see something or hear something that is instantly funny.  Sometimes it is the context or lack of a context that causes the laugh.  One such thing happened to me today.  I was innocently heading into a building for my next stop of the day.  As I walked by a set of doors, I noticed a sign posted on the window.  As I read it, I immediately broke into laughter.          

The sign read: “Insanity is cancelled; Resumes next week!  I suppose for those who know more than I do, the sign makes perfect sense.  It was clear to me that since I did not have the right context, the sign was simply funny.  I did not know that insanity went on in that building!  And if insanity were happening, why would they want to cancel it?  Clearly, I was missing something.           

Of course, I know “insanity” means sick---usually mentally sick. In Latin sanus means health, soundness and sane.  The “in” on the front of sanus means just the opposite.  Since I had no context for the meaning of the sign, I concluded someone had decided to cancel craziness.  Again on the surface, this can only be funny.  I understand that most of us on my campus---and generally in life---use the language of “craziness” in a kind of colloquial way that simply means someone acts funny or oddly.  Most of us don’t know enough psychology or psychiatry to make a clinical diagnosis of insanity.             

With a couple questions I was able to find out the context of the sign.  Apparently there is an intensive physical workout program that is called “insanity.”  When I heard this, I could only imagine a group of people signed up to be recipients of some ex-Marine who stills likes to put people through the paces of an impossible workout exercise regimen.  Not me!  I’m too sane for insanity!           

I suspect those who are in the insanity program were probably disappointed when they read the sign.  I also hope they were feeling better when they also read that insanity would resume next week.  But I also assume people crazy enough to engage an insanity program would not feel good about having to wait a week to get back to insanity!           

This whole episode with the sign, its message and an appropriate context did lead me to some spiritual musing.  My first thought was to recognize that I consider myself sane.  I see myself as normal and that means, by definition, how I think about things and how I act become a standard to judge whether other people are also normal.  Clearly, if they think like I do and act like I do, then they also are normal---they are sane.  The poor souls who think and act differently than I do are to be seen as a little abnormal.  Pushed to the extreme, that person is insane!           

I confess that it is possible to have this perspective and to feel rather smug about my sanity and normalcy.  I can even arrogantly presuppose my way is pretty much the way God designed things.  Of course, I don’t think I am arrogant.  In my quiet smugness I feel like I have confirmation that this is the way God wanted it because I am so representative of my culture.  I fit right in and frequently feel no uneasiness by how culturally correct I am!  This is where the spiritual wake-up call needs to break in.  It has broken in occasionally, but I recognize I may actually have mixed up things.           

If we read the story of Jesus closely (or probably any other major religious figure, like the Buddha or others), we would begin to sense that culturally speaking he likely was insane!  He did not fit very well in his culture.  In fact, he rightly could be seen as counter-cultural.  When I hear that word, I immediately think of the Hippies in the 60s.  What if I begin to take seriously the message of Jesus---on its own terms?           

I read things like turning the other cheek.  I ponder the place it says to love your enemies.  In reality most of us would say this is insane to love our enemies!  Culturally, Jesus befriended the wrong kind of people.  Apparently he did not care about his reputation.  That is insane!  How could he have expected to make a name for himself and become a “somebody,” acting the way he did?  He did an abominable job of networking.  The powerful and well-placed people were precisely the ones he routinely ticked off.           

At times, he seems close to saying the culture was the insane asylum.  The authentically spiritual person would sell all he had, give it to the poor and follow Jesus.  On the surface to do that would be crazy!  However, the more I read and ponder what I read in the gospels, the more I think Jesus was insightful.  He realized that so much of our culture is crazy---insane, if you will.           

People like me chase things not worth having.  We follow people not worth the effort.  We lust when we should love.  We hate when we should learn how to love.  And our culture justifies---sometimes expects---this kind of behavior.  And having said that, I wonder if one way to read the gospels is to imagine it saying to us: “Insanity is cancelled; it will return only when you lose your spiritual mind!”

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