Being Sane

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for May 25, 2006 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church tolabu2@frontiernet.net

On Being Sane in a Crazy World

Several years ago my friend and colleague, Dr. Mark Trotter, Pastor of First United Methodist Church in San Diego, told this story in a sermon.

Psychologist, George Leonard, tells this about a woman who lived in Monterey, California. One day she was washing dishes when she was overwhelmed with a wonderful feeling of joy. She suddenly realized that all the people of this world are really the same person. We are, in the deepest sense of the word, all one. It was such an incredibly beautiful experience that she ran out and gathered her family, and told them what had happened to her. Do you know what they did?

They put her in the car and took her to the hospital. A psychiatrist heard her story and decided she needed to be institutionalized. After all, how many people discover a conviction that we are all one while they are washing the dishes?

While she was in the hospital she continued to appreciate her discovery more each day. She no longer saw the barriers which separate people from people; instead, she saw a world of people who hold together the basic needs for love and care and understanding. Physically, she told her doctors that she had never felt better in her life. She said she had felt an emotional acceptance of other people and of herself unlike anything she had ever known before. It was like being young again, being born again.

Every day the officials would bring her out of her room and ask her, "What’s your opinion of the state of humankind?" And she would say, "We are all one. Can’t you see it? Don’t you want to see it?" And they would ask, "So how do you feel today?" And she would say, "I feel just wonderful. In fact, I feel like dancing." Then they would lock her up again.

She was not obnoxious about it. She wasn’t confrontational. She quietly told people what had happened to her. Until one day she finally got the message. So she stopped saying, "We are all one." People would ask her, "How do you feel today?" And she began telling them what she knew they wanted to hear. She began to say, "I feel terrible." So the doctors said, "You’re cured. You can go home now." When she told her story to George Leonard, she said, "I still have this conviction that we are all one. But I just don’t tell anybody about it any more!"

The Apostle Paul said, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God . . ." (Romans 12:2).
Someone once said that if you take the message of Christianity seriously three things will happen to you – you will be very happy, extremely courageous, and constantly in trouble. Think about that!!

(σ.σ. Το κείμενο αυτό το έλαβα σήμερα το πρωϊ από τον αγαπητό μου Dr. Butts. Ανέλπιστα όταν το διάβασα, μου έδωσε κουράγιο να αντιμετωπίσω τα δικά μου θέματα που αυτήν τη στιγμή βρίσκονται σε έξαρση. Δεν το είχα ζητήσει με λόγια, αλλά το κείμενο αυτό ήταν μια ανάσα στο να ξεκινήσει η επόμενη μέρα μετά το χθεσινό βίωμα. Χαρά μου να το μοιραστώ μαζί σας, Μ.)