Dark Devotional: We must be crazy

Last updated on: January 19, 2017 at 9:14 pm by Guest Contributor

Dark Devotional: We must be crazy 2017-01-19T21:14:28-05:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Mark 3:21: For they said: He is become mad.

Hysteria, WikiCommons

He was crowded by so many people that he couldn’t even eat, Jesus was. And so were those who followed and served him faithfully. And his family, not so much the ones who loved him best or knew him best, but the ones who thought themselves most qualified to judge, decided that he must be crazy.

The leap is large and confusing to me at first, until I remember back a couple of weeks ago.

After a total emotional collapse, I was resting and recovering, surrounded by people who wanted to serve me. And help me remember to eat. But the new meds I was taking made eating hard. I would say “yes” to something offered, then turn it away. I would take a plate I thought I was so hungry for and suddenly feel too tired to lift the fork to my lips. Salmon skin made me suddenly hate my favorite food. Crackers were salty and scratchy. My spirit was tired. It needed rest and nourishment. And yet the circling of those who most wanted to serve me made it hard for me to find my way through the fog to my place at the table. I had entered the house of my recovery, but I could not find my way to the table.

And it made me look crazy.

I knew it did.

And while an emotional collapse and new psych meds may well qualify one as such, what we all longed for was my recovery, not for me to be seized and taken away.

And this is the difference between me and you and our Jesus. We can be weak and weary and unable to respond to the people who are inviting us to their table, and we are loved, “holy and blameless in his sight”. (Ephesians 1: 4)

On the other hand, Jesus, in the same position, becomes the enemy of the world–who doesn’t want an apparently weak and crazy Savior, who doesn’t want a God who stops for the sinners before he takes his place of honor. They’d like to take that kind of Savior and hide him behind bars or nail him to a cross to do away with such madness.

And yet when they do in fact “win,” and his blood is spilled and his spirit is given up, the rest of us who will walk this crazy spinning planet until the end of time are saved, in our weakness, in all our brokenness, in all our craziness.

And we know what it is that we are hungry for: the blood of eternal sacrifice that redeems us. And we all rise behind him to a new life, where no matter how off kilter our brains might get, our hearts are held by a Savior who loves us enough to wait and nourish us before he takes for himself.

A Savior who loves us like mad, who loves us like crazy, who loves us with the heart of the Father who sits on the throne and smiles at us as we take and eat.

Colleen C. Mitchell is the author of Who Does He Say You Are? Women Transformed by Christ in the Gospels (Servant, 2016). She’s wife to Greg and mother to five amazing sons here on earth and five in heaven. Colleen and Greg are foreign missionaries in Costa Rica, where they run the St. Francis Emmaus Center, a ministry that welcomes indigenous mothers into their home to access medical care. She works out what it means to trust Jesus, grieve well, and live a raw faith at her blog Blessed Are the FeetMark

Dark Devotional

Catholicism

Colleen Connell Mitchell

crazy

faith

mental illness

Previous Post

January 18, 2017

Trying to Say God (as artists)

Next Post

January 20, 2017 What it Means to be a Catholic Woman in Trump's America

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Approaching Mystery art Book Reviews Catholic Ghost Story Catholicism community Confession Current Events Dark Devotional Deconstruction Deconstruction Fellow Travelers I Want To Believe Interview Laudato Si Lent Mary Matthew's Letters Movie Reviews Music Reviews Our Charism Personal Essay Pilgrims Pope Francis Popular Piety Prayer Publishing Richard Beck Saints Satan Sheed and Ward Sick Pilgrim Charism Sick Pilgrim Chats Sick Pilgrim Events Sick Pilgrim Travelin' Medicine Show Sick Pilgrimage to The West Sick Pilgrims Small Joys Spiritual Autobiography Spooky Files of Ave Maria Magazine Spooky October Spooky Pilgrim Spooky Pilgrimage Strange Journey The Inklings Things Keeping Us Going Trying to Say God TV Reviews Uncategorized women in the Catholic Church Wonder Podcast Write the Vision

Select a Month February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Love God Pray always Follow rules Attend temple