LOSING YOUR MIND IS A GOOD THING?

Have you ever had a day where you thought you might truly be losing your mind?  During those crazy unexpected calamities, have you yourself ever gasped, hung your head low and uttered that probable phrase, “I think I am about to lose my mind!”?  I can’t say that there’s ever really a dull moment around our home, but last weekend tops off any other stressful event in my recent memory. It has actually been awhile since anything extraordinarily catastrophic had taken place in our home so I knew something was bound to happen soon.   I know that God definitely allows some of these situations to help me learn valuable insights that I would not discover any other way.  Although I sincerely appreciate these lessons and even pray for them at times, I must admit that in the midst of dealing with some of these ordeals I definitely feel as though I am about to lose my mind.  

I will spare you with the nitty gritty details of each seemingly earth shattering incidents from last weekend, so I will summarize this word picture with a few short but descriptive phrases.  Our latest indoor upheavals involved mud, vomit and overflowing toilets.   I usually tend to be a “go with the flow” kind of person (no pun intended) with these sort of situations, but when they come in groups of three within a 24 hour period, my mental state seems to become a little more fragile.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the mud ordeal would soon seem the least of my concerns. Once that mess was cleaned up, I thought we were home free until our youngest, unbeknownst to us, had secretly gorged himself with half a tray of brownies while we visited with our large group of company. All was well for several hours after our friends departed, but the amusement was only about to begin.

The gallons of vomit that soaked our sons bedding didn’t even win the prize. The throw up that was trailed throughout the downstairs, onto the carpets and into our main floor kitchen were NOT even the most disgusting occurrence. I knew the situation couldn’t possibly get any worse but I was sadly mistaken!  

Just hours later we began to realize the serious consequences of our third floor toilet overflowing.  May I add that this was not CLEAN water!  It was UNCLEAN water that ended up leaking down through to the main floor. I'm sure you get the picture.  We discovered the leakage dripping down on us while sorting clothes in our laundry room, which is located beneath the upstairs bathroom.  Our enjoyment did not even stop there!  When we found toilet water all the way down in our finished basement, it was almost enough to finally throw me over the edge! If you know me, anything to do with bodily fluids being outside the realm of where they belong is NOT my cup of tea.  This is precisely the reason why I gave up aspirations of a nursing career years ago. The tears began to flow freely as I was convinced I had definitely lost my mind.

 I can honestly say that cleaning up the huge unsanitary messes were not even the worst part of the whole ordeal. The mounds of smelly laundry that resulted from these catastrophes were the most stressful part. Our washing machine is not large enough to properly clean all of the vomit and other matters out of the sleeping bags, comforters, pillows and towels. Out of necessity, we had to take our not so pleasant laundry to our local laundromat.  Might I add that it was a balmy -13 degrees below zero as we hauled all of these baskets in and out of the cold.  Three hours and thirty dollars later, we were finally finished cleaning and sanitizing all of our soiled bedding, clothing and towels.

I must admit that I was frustrated at the fact that we had to spend so much extra time, effort and money to clean up everything when all of these situations could have been totally avoided.  One of my daughters, who had noticed my not so positive attitude, pointed out that I should probably deal with my sin of frustration which is actually anger.  She was so right but it took me a few minutes to agree with her assessment.  The Holy Spirit began to prick my heart through her words.  I had been feeling sorry for myself and chose to be frazzled and anxious instead of asking God what He desired to teach me in allowing these things to happen in the first place.  I certainly wasn't viewing my circumstances in proper light. 

As my heart was convicted of the several times I mentioned how I was going to “lose my mind”, I was reminded of the fact that God wants us to lose our mind.  What?  Yes, God actually desires for us to give up our own mindset and selfish attitudes and trade them for His mind and His attitudes about the situations that He allows us to go through.  God reminded me of Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  We MUST replace our mind and attitude for Christ’s. 

We must always have His outlook on our circumstances, whether we see it as good or bad. 

In Phil. 2: 5-11 we see Christ’s attitude and mind described for us and how He is our ultimate example of humility.  He left heaven to come to earth to serve us.  He made Himself of no reputation and came in the likeness of men. Verse 7 tells us,”… He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”  This passage shows us that our mindset, our attitude, our temperament and our disposition ought always to be the same as that of Christ.

 

God never intended for me to be stressed out during the mud, vomit and overflowing toilet issues.  He used those unpleasant situations to remind me once again to “lose my mind” and take on His, to be thankful that I have a precious son that I have the privilege to model the love and patience of Christ to.  I can be grateful that I even have a toilet that can be flooded.  I should be appreciative that I have several children that were able to help clean up all of those messes.  God desired for me to allow His mercy, grace and love to flow through me in this entire situation to teach our kids the biblical way to handle stress, but sadly I didn’t fully pass the test.  I had to ask for forgiveness for not totally responding the right way and then we all sat down and named the lessons we had learned through these situations.  Thankfully, God is not finished with any of us yet. 


I need to humbly “lose my mind” daily and replace it with the mind of Christ.  Will you join me in losing your mind as well?  I challenge each one of us to remember to exchange our mind and attitude for that of Christ’s every day.  The next time we are faced with unpleasant circumstances and we’re tempted to utter the words, “I’m going to lose my mind!” may we do just that. 

 

OVERPACKING MAKES HEAVY BAGGAGE

Are you one of those people like me who tends to go overboard when packing your bags for a trip?  My problem is that I sometimes have a hard time with the thought of leaving behind something that I could end up needing.  I am that person who is sitting on top of my overstuffed suitcase as I struggle to try to get it completely closed and zipped shut.  I’ve learned over the years however, that I don’t ever end up using all those things I thought were necessities to bring along.  Over packing can also make it seem like a living nightmare when you have to lug your heavy baggage through the airport, trying not to miss your next flight. 

I must humbly admit that I have been an over packer my entire life.  It all began around the age of two when I remember thinking that carrying a purse was a dire necessity.  A few years ago when I flew in an airplane across the country, I stuffed my carryon bag as full as I could get it.  I also brought the largest purse I owned and filled it to overflowing.  When we finally landed from our six hour journey, the flight attendant noticed as I struggled to get my bags out of the overhead compartment.  In an effort to help, she asked if she could hold my purse for me and commented on how she should get my picture because I was carrying the biggest and heaviest purse she’d ever seen in all the years she’d been flying.  How embarrassing it was for me that so many people noticed that I had a problem with over packing.

Even more troubling was my tendency to hold onto all kinds of baggage over the years that I simply did NOT need to carry around with me everywhere.  Let me tell you that my baggage was extremely heavy and burdensome to haul around every day but I refused to let it go and it began to cause many problems in my life.  The baggage I chose to hold onto was extremely ugly, not the pretty animal print luggage that I would prefer to carry now.  I became exhausted from hauling the needless baggage of bitterness, envy, fear, anger and guilt for decades.  I gripped firm and would not let go of them despite the awful destructive consequences that were bringing to my life.

When someone hurt me I never forgave them.  I was envious of other people who had looks, talents and possessions that I thought I deserved to have.  I was often frustrated inside and impatient when things didn’t go my way.  Fear ruled my heart as I struggled to humanly understand why certain circumstances came into my life.  The weight of guilt I carried was unbearable because I rarely ever confessed the sin in my heart to God.  I chose to lug all of this heavy baggage around everywhere I went.  I didn’t dare loosen my grip and I felt like a victim who needed affirmation for continuing to carry all of that pointless destructive baggage.  I needed to let go of all of that wretchedness before I my life was ruined by it.

I’m so thankful that my eyes were opened to the truth and that I could be free from all of my baggage because of God’s Word.  Instead of being bogged down with the weight of my filthy sin, I could find the rest that I so desperately needed. I could have the joy that was once in my heart return because my heart was made pure through confession.  Anyone can find true joy and be freed from all of that baggage is we are simply willing to make some very key changes.

*We must be willing to humble ourselves and admit that we have been carrying heavy luggage with us everywhere and it’s time to lay it all down.   We can’t find freedom from our load of sin when we will not come clean with the fact that we’ve been carrying it around.  “He who covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

*We must bow our heads and confess the fact we’ve been holding firmly onto our heavy weight of sin.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:9

*We must realize that Jesus wants to take our baggage of sin away from us and replace our envy, bitterness, anger and guilt with peace and joy so we can live the life that He died to give us. “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 

Do you have the tendency to over pack your heart with heavy unnecessary baggage and wonder why you are always so exhausted? We must realize that we do not ever need to carry any of those heavy suitcases again because we have a Savior who is waiting to take those burdens from us.   Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, ALL you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We do not ever have to struggle with carrying around that horrible heavy baggage of sin any longer. Jesus desires for us to come to Him and finally unload all of our burdens which will allow us to find the rest in our souls that we are all so desperately searching for. It’s time for us to readily forgive others, be thankful for who God made us to be and trust that He has a special plan for our lives and wants to use to fulfill His purposes for His glory.  Absolutely no more over packing for me, how about you?