Normal Insanity

For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says “Do not fear, I will help you”. Isaiah 41: 13

Help – It takes a long time to get to the place where we ask for help.  In a culture where self-sufficiency is the measure of personal worth, we often know we need help but there is something in us that continues to shout, “I’m not going to give up.  I‘ll do it myself.  I don’t care!”  This is a symptom of normal insanity.  It’s normal, all right, because it’s such a common behavior.  But it is insane.  It’s the belief that doing the same thing we did before will magically result in a different consequence.  We always end up in the same place.  We are fighting against the way God designed the world and all of our shouting won’t change anything.

When we finally reach the end of the line, when we really experience the bankruptcy of self-sufficiency, we need help.  We just can’t manage change on our own.  Calling on God at this point could be a fearful experience.  We have been so used to failure and disappointment.  We might fear that God will also find us unworthy.  After all, we often feel that way.  We have failed to be what we wanted to be.  Fortunately, God is not the critic we make Him to be.  God promises to rescue, to save us.  If God can say, “Do not fear”, what is there to really be afraid of?  Only the voice of our old self could be bold enough to call God a liar.  The truth is in God’s word.  He will help.  That old inner voice has been lying to us.  It is God’s word that we need to act on.  The inner voice mouths the same appeal that the serpent used to tempt Havvah.  No wonder the Old Testament uses the word accuser for the enemy.  The real question is this:  Will I believe God’s promise or will I believe my inner voice?  Who am I going to listen to?  To become the person I wish to be, I will have to stop listening to myself.

This Hebrew word comes from a root word (azar) meaning to rescue or save or to excuse.  The general sense is military assistance.  In the Psalms, God’s help arrives in personal intervention during illness (Ps. 28:7), oppression (Ps. 54:4), and great personal distress (Ps. 86:17).  We can think of it as reinforcements.  God promises to provide all that we need to be rescued from the bankruptcy of self-sufficiency.  That doesn’t mean He simply pulls us out of our circumstances.  The circumstances are there for a reason.  They remind us of our true state.  And we seem to need a lot of reminding.  But God does not withhold rescue to those who are broken.  He is the Lord, compassionate, merciful and long-suffering.  His promise is unbreakable.

Today, you and I may need to be reminded once more that normal insanity is the constant condition of the world.  The inner voice of our self-sufficient sickness seduces us because it seems so intimate.  But it is the voice of the asylum.  Today we must turn to the only trustworthy words, the ones God gave to those who wish to be well.

Topical Index:  Human Being