I think often about a story of two friends I used to work with who had known each other since childhood. They became addicts as teenagers, and they used drugs together until one (I’ll call him Bob) went to prison and the other (I’ll call him Ted) got clean. When Bob got out of prison, he saw Ted in the street looking so put together that Bob did not recognize him at first. When Bob did recognize him, he stopped Ted and said, “What happened to you?” Ted responded with one word: “Jesus!”
Ted went on to become a pastor, Bob went on to die of an overdose, and I watched Ted preach at Bob’s funeral.
Bob and Ted come to mind when I read the story in the gospels about a man with a demon living on the outskirts of town, doing great harm to himself and lashing out in such a way that no one else dares come near him. No one thinks twice about him other than to give him a wide berth, until one day Jesus heals him. It’s only when they see that same man “clothed and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15) that they become afraid and ask Jesus to leave. That’s how I imagine Bob felt when he saw Ted “in his right mind,” disoriented to see someone he had known since childhood change so much, and scared for what might happen if he changed that much, too.
Do it anyway
Some of the things God is doing in our lives will seem crazy to the people around us. They may cost us friendships or even family members. Good friends will correct us when we are “beside ourselves,” acting out of character at work, with a spouse, or in a financial decision. But there are times when our faith calls us to do those things anyway, even if it comes at great cost.
Paul says it this way when he reaches out to the people who don’t know what to make of him: “If we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.” — 2 Cor. 5:13.
A sheet of paper that used to hang on the wall in Mother Teresa’s convent sums up what it looks like to be “beside oneself” for God:
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by
the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway. — Kent M. Keith
Hard rules to live by
Loving people who are difficult to love; doing right when the world does wrong; standing firm in one’s convictions; staying the course when doubt creeps in about whether anything we do really matters; these are what it means to be beside oneself for God.
Those are hard rules to live by in a world where many people are beside themselves for things other than God. Parents disown their children because they are gay. People trusted to keep the peace shoot first and ask questions later. Family members stop talking to each other because of politics or a disputed inheritance. These behaviors might make sense if we start from a place of self-righteousness, or entitlement, or grievance, or insecurity, but that is not where God calls us to start when we claim to be sane.
“If we are in our right mind, it is for you.”
When someone is sick on the sabbath, Jesus says the sane thing to do is to take care of that person, not tell them to “come back tomorrow.” If someone is thirsty, he says the sane thing is to give them a drink. If someone is hungry, he says to feed them. If someone is a stranger, he says to welcome them. He doesn’t stop us first to ask how we voted, or where we’re from. He doesn’t ask to see our birth certificates. He treats the person in front of him like a human being, no matter who calls him crazy for doing it, and he calls us to do the same.
