Divine Reality Check

We are all a lit­tle crazy. The san­est among us ques­tion their san­ity the most. San­ity is based on a para­dox. If you do not ques­tion your san­ity, then you may well be on the road to Crazyville. Pos­i­tive self-doubt is a sign of men­tal and spir­i­tual health. Saints are com­mon peo­ple with enough wis­dom to obtain an occa­sional Divine real­ity check (through prayer, med­i­ta­tion, read­ing, wise coun­sel from oth­ers, and time alone with nature).

From indi­vid­ual hang-ups to mass hys­te­ria, we are all a lit­tle off cen­ter. Admit­ting it is a key ingre­di­ent in repen­tance (a change of mind or heart). It is cen­tral in one of Jesus’ favorite sto­ries: The Para­ble of the Prodi­gal Son. Until the out of con­trol sec­ond son “came to him­self” and ques­tioned what he was doing, he was act­ing out some sort of weird nar­cis­sis­tic drama. His real­ity check was based on his mem­ory of the one truly sane per­son in his life — the calm, wise par­ent back home.

The sec­ondary story in the para­ble is about the over-conforming older brother that appeared to have his act together. In truth, he was just crazy in a dif­fer­ent direc­tion. His “act­ing out” was in his holier-than-thou atti­tude. The father in the story had to work with him too. In the story, God is rep­re­sented by the father and the two boys rep­re­sent the two major themes to being a bit wacko: over-conformity and under-conformity. We all tend to fall into one cat­e­gory or another. San­ity is found between the two extremes.

I poke fun at myself in a pos­i­tive way. That is called humil­ity. By rec­og­niz­ing my weak­nesses I become strong (another para­dox). True strength is know­ing your lim­i­ta­tions, accept­ing them, and work­ing around them. Deny­ing them is the self-told lie that opens the door to a lot of evil.

I am very cau­tious about peo­ple that poke fun at me or oth­ers, but not at them­selves. That is a red flag. My inner coun­selor encour­ages me to pull my chair back a few inches and get some emo­tional dis­tance. Being put on the defen­sive is a tac­tic that goes all the way back to the ser­pent in the Gar­den of Eden.

I have done some really crazy things in my life…and some out­right bad ones too. “Be mer­ci­ful to me a sin­ner…” is the open­ing line of hon­est prayer and the first step in the Divine real­ity check.