No one could ever truly appreciate what this means, unless you’ve lost it. Until you have been so down and battered, that you could not make your own decisions, you don’t have a true understanding. I think there’s a reason people on here [Facebook] and other places, say such unkind and thoughtless things. The way they rail out to others and offer some slanted opinion, always tells me something about them. They haven’t suffered; or at least, they have not suffered enough. They’ve never lost their mind.

I will say without blinking, that I am so glad that Jesus walks the halls of mental institutions and visits those who are ill there. You might find a way to get over the stigma, if you’ve been the stigma. It won’t do to mention that there was a great deal of emotionally ill men and women, among some of us in days gone by. It will do even less, to mention, that there still is. And you could not tell even one soul, that you had it, or that one of your family members was terribly sick with it. Many people, suffered at home, in silence.

There were some very ill folk in our churches; to this day, we can not be honest about it. What those, did to their children and their spouses, remains a secret; the minds they twisted, such a lasting impact that many deal with, even today. But regardless of all of the reasons, to lose control of your thought processes, or be so badly broken that you cannot function, it’s a journey down hell’s row. I spoke in a particular service years ago, on something the Spirit had led me to do. The title was, “So, you want to lose your mind.”

Tragedy, bad choices, abuse and wicked and hateful people, can rob you of your sanity. War, which most people here know nothing what so ever about, can do it. Inherited genes, can bring it about also. Demonic possession and oppression can cripple your mind. It is such a pity to me, that those who claimed to be so spiritual, could let some brother or sister suffer, and do nothing. People who had nobody to talk or to confide in, while so many ran the aisles, shouting and dancing, leaving so many alone, without any hope.

Drugs, alcohol, self-abuse, church abuse, broken marriages and unkind and unfaithful spouses, rebellious children, hard-hearted and self-righteous religious people you trusted, can wound your mind and spirit. Add your own to the list. Envious and very jealous men and women, that stomp your spirit into the ground; rottenness to the bone, and cruel as the grave. Giving up, finally quitting and no one even comes to see you; shouting and dancing right on.

But Jesus comes. He heals when others won’t; touches and binds up wounds that others were called to do. You hang on to every promise you can; fear having run rampant for so terribly long. And then, He writes a message upon your mind and your heart; you cling to it like one who is dying; because you were. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind.” It doesn’t mean the same to others, but it’s one promise that you claim, and you will never let it go. The Healer, has come.

~ Robert Blackburn

Robert Blackburn