Finding Your Mind After You Lose It

Many years ago, at Texas Tech Uni­ver­sity, I was in a class that was dis­cussing child rear­ing tac­tics. I do not remem­ber much about the class, but I do remem­ber the advice of one suc­cess­ful mother. Her chil­dren were grown, and she had returned to school to improve her lot in life. She said she had an approach — espe­cially for her small­est chil­dren when they were throw­ing fits — that really worked. She would approach the child with a switch behind her back and say, “Child, you done lost your mind and I am going to help you find it.” A few sec­onds later the child would be in his or her right mind again. The appear­ance and use of the switch was an instant sanity-finder.

To a large degree, we are only as crazy as we can afford to be. Sto­ries have been told of men­tal wards that have caught fire. Sud­denly, every­one became much more sane. We go from the petty to the essen­tial by cri­sis. It looks like we are about to have an oppor­tu­nity to do that on a grand scale. “Global warm­ing” (if there really is such a thing) has sud­denly taken a back seat to the econ­omy. Petty law­suits have retreated to the back pages, while sto­ries of job losses and sui­cides have made the head­lines. It is time to wake up and get very sane!

“God dis­ci­plines those He loves!” That is a good phrase to remem­ber. God helps us get our lit­tle minds back, espe­cially when we are throw­ing petty social tem­per tantrums over who gets what mate­ri­ally. A vol­cano, fire, earth­quake, or hur­ri­cane can sure change your focus — and rather sud­denly. Peo­ple band together in a severe cri­sis. We thicken our skin and drop our per­sonal agen­das, then we help peo­ple dig out from under the rub­ble of what was once their lives.

Through these decades of mate­r­ial indul­gence, I have often heard old timers say, “What we really need is a good depres­sion.” They have ref­er­ence to the strength of char­ac­ter that dif­fi­cul­ties bring. We get our minds back when we can­not afford to be petty.

There is no telling what may hap­pen today. If it is a cri­sis of some sort, I am going to remind myself that God may be help­ing me find my bet­ter mind.