Are you out of your mind?

Mark 3:20-21

The crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind."

When I am in the presence of somebody who is saying or doing things that are out of the norm I react in a variety of ways.

Sometimes I am attracted. There is a charisma about somebody who is following a mind set or life style that is fresh or innovative. I may try their way on for size, so to speak. I may even find myself adapting my way to theirs.

Sometimes I am simply fascinated. I stand apart, looking or listening for a while...wondering about the nature of what I experience in the person's presence. Nomatter how fascinated I am, though, I maintain a distance, and am not so drawn in that I embrace the different pattern indicated by the "free spirit".

Then, there are the times that the way suggested is so dramatically different that I discount it completely. I may even be revolted by what I hear or see, and my reaction moves immediately to something like: "What's that about? How crazy can that be?"

What does today's reading say? Jesus' family and friends thought he was out of his mind. When he began to live and teach from the core of his true identity as the Son of God, those who had been around him all his life began to wonder about him. They saw him as a disruption that called the way things "are" into question. Their concern grew to resistance and ultimately to an effort to restrain him from his path. However, he had no choice. His path was clear to him.

Jesus came to heal the fundamental cause of human pain. He served to cast out any thoughts or behaviors that were unjust. He taught others to live with no concern for themselves. He called them to embrace his way and to lead others along that path. Although many were attracted to him, compelled by what all that he said and did, those who knew him first (family, neighborhood friends, etc) thought he was out of his mind and stood apart from him. So he went on.......and through the Holy Spirit he continues to lead us on his crazy path.

We often draw most closely to people, patterns, ideas or situations that are in some way a confirmation of who we are and the preferences we embody. When someone or something seems to build upon something we have already said or done it feels like an extension of what we have experienced as the truth...an affirmation of our value...a validation that we have been "right". We move closer to thinking that we have some authoritative claim to what it true. (We don't hear much about the wisdom and teachings of Jesus' friends and relations, though, do we? They may well have represented standards of normalcy for their town and time....but compared to all that Jesus did, their "authority" was fleeting!)

When and where has Jesus led you to do something that some of your friends and family thought was just a bit crazy? Trust that maybe, just maybe, those were the times that you were most in line with what Christ calls you to do and to be!