Insanity and Egotism

To recognize one's own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity. ~author unknown

I recently heard the above quote and it made complete sense to me. I don't think the author was a believer, but on a spiritual perspective I took this to mean to recognize one's own dysfunction. I have a tendency to believe that I alone am dysfunctional. I usually assume most of my Christian friends have it altogether. I really do realize this is erroneous and that each of us have our own struggles even if we don't make them public. Ah, I guess my distorted perception of others is a good example of my insanity, eh? Aren't we all born into this world dysfunctional and insane? Isn't that what the bible refers to as the sinful nature? I'm just thinking "out loud" here. What hope is there for the insanity and egotism of man?

I've made reference (in my other blog) to the children's book written by Max Lucado entitled "You Are Loved". It is a great analogy about how we (meaning all of us) go around placing judgments on each other; pointing fingers at each other; assuming we are somehow better than each other; when in the end we are all really the same... all rolling around in the mud of our sin except for the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In this story the judgments are portrayed by stickers the people stick on each other. There are good stickers and bad stickers. The more "good" stickers you have the better you are and vice versa. In the end, deeds accomplished in the flesh, whether positive or negative are the same aren't they? If we do not give the glory to our Lord Jesus Christ than what good is anything we do? If we are not covered by the blood of Christ as an atonement for our sins than aren't we truly despicable regardless of the level of our "badness" or goodness for that matter. This is something I have been pondering today. 

I've had to make lots of really hard decisions lately and the consequences of a wrong decision are extreme. To be honest, I would have been most happy just staying where I was and not having to make any decisions. In this case, however, I had no choice but to do as I was told by a well-meaning counselor. Today, I had to come to the realization that right or wrong I can only do the best I can do and trust God to lead my path. I've done things I thought God wanted me to do and later realized it was my ego and not the Holy Spirit. I've also done things I really didn't want to do thinking "maybe" God was leading me and later realized it was totally God's hand at work. In either event, I have to believe that God is sovereign over all the wrong choices I make and over all the right choices I make. All I can do is claim the blood of Christ and his covering over my choices. In the end, He alone is responsible for me, my children, my husband, my husband's decisions, and all of these choices. He alone can be the flashlight that exposes truth and sin in the lives of all of us. I surrender it all to you Lord. You alone are sovereign despite my insanity and egotism.