"Am I Crazy?"

"Am I crazy?" Faith says out of the blue.

I'm sure it wasn't really out of the blue. I'm sure it was just one of those things that came out of our conversation that related to everything else we were just talking about: preschool, Faith's 3-week OCC job, me being the only pastor at Ridgeview, the kids we have and don't yet have... Or maybe it was still just out of the blue - it would definitely help if I were a better listener!

"I don't think you're crazy, Faith. Why, do you think I'm crazy?" Way to avoid the conversation buddy - yeah right.
"No, I don't think you're crazy," she says, "I married you after all. But - that could mean we're both crazy and don't know it because, well, we're crazy."
"I guess - yeah, that makes sense."

I figure if we're both crazy, then that should at least excuse some of the mistakes we make, right? And it should make it easier to accept each other's faults because hey, they're crazy too. Are you sure you're not crazy? I mean, what is 'normal'? It's just a term made up by crazy people to make you think that there's a possibility of being sane, when in reality, we're all kinda upside-down and messed up.

I think Jesus tried to get that across to us too. The upside-down kingdom is really right-side up. So many of the things we think are supposed to be a certain way are really backwards.

Take for example, your eye. You see something, your lens flips it upside-down on to your retina, and your brain reads it as if it were right-side up! I heard a speaker recently talking about an experiment in the UK where a kid volunteered to go on live television, have an experiment done to him, and put on a pair of goggles that made him see everything upside-down. I'm sure you're thinking, "He's crazy!" As soon as he put them on he wiggled and wobbled like a Weeble and had to be escorted off stage. A week later, he returned - walking normally, eating food, riding a bike, playing video games - virtually normal. They took the goggles off and he was back to being a Weeble for a short time.

So many people think Christians, especially those who actually care about what they believe, are crazy. Maybe we're just normal and it's everyone else who is crazy. Maybe it's time we took our goggles off...

!eb ot tnaem erew yeht yaw eht sgniht ees dluow elpoep ebyam neht dna...

- Mark