I don’t have any statistics on this, but I would venture to say that one of the more common adjectives used to describe people that we don’t understand is: “crazy.”
Think about it. How many times have you said…
“He’s crazy.”
“She’s crazy.”
“They’re crazy.”
“Her husband is crazy.”
“That chick is straight-up crazy.”
“He’s got a little crazy in him.”
“Wow, that family is crazy.”
Let me just get this out in the clear early on. We’re all a little crazy. So the next time you call someone crazy, just realize that you are right there with them.
Now, I will admit there are varying degrees of crazy. There’s the Charles Manson crazy, the Dennis Rodman crazy, and the Evel Knievel crazy. There’s the Steve O crazy, there’s the mother-in-law-in-the-movies crazy, and then there’s all the other kinds of crazy in between.
The enemy longs to see you shamed into a corner, and he has a special tool just for you and your family. It’s this devastating tool he uses, leaving you stuck in your home, lonely, tired, depressed, and angry at whatever has happened to you. It’s this tool that he uses to keep you and your family from being the beacon of hope that you can really be. It’s what he wants to wedge in between you and the rest of your loved ones. It’s how he is planning to break up your marriage.
I bet you think I’m going to say that tool is addiction, but it isn’t.
This tool the enemy uses to destroy families is pride.
I don’t mean pride as you traditionally may view it, in the sense that you are arrogant or conceited. Rather, I’m talking about the type of pride that convinces you that what you are dealing with is an isolated incident, and no one else is struggling with something similar.
The pride that says a wayward child, a drug-addicted spouse, or an alcoholic mother is something that shouldn’t be mentioned in polite conversation. I mean the kind of pride that lies to us and holds us back.
This pride makes us feel like we have to have it all together. This pride keeps us from opening up about the reality of what’s really going on in our lives. It barricades us from the rest of the world, and makes us think we are crazy.
But remember: we’re all a little crazy & Your crazy isn’t worthless. it has intrinsic value.
Why? Because there is splendor even in the chaos. There is something beautiful in the brokenness. God does his best work when things don’t look perfect.
He’s perfect so we don’t have to be.
He came for the sick, not the healthy.
We can have hope knowing that our lives are crazy—and that’s exactly where God wants us. When we are weak, we can finally begin to look to the one who is STRONG!
This is foundational to understanding how to overcome some of lives toughest trials. There is not a fully sane person among us, so it’s time to stop pretending there are.
Your crazy doesn’t make you a bad person, a failed partner, or a disastrous parent. What it makes you is real, honest, and human. This flawed world is where flawed people live.
So don’t let pride keep you from claiming your crazy. It’s the most freeing thing you can do.
(This is an excerpt from Finding Hope, the new book by Lance. Pick it up here.)
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