You Might Think I'm Crazy

1Samuel 21:10-15

That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:

“‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands’?”

David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

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And it was hard so hard to take
(So hard to take)
(There's no escape)
There's no escape
Without a scrape
(Without a scrape)
But you kept it going till the sun fell down
You kept it
going

"You Might Think" on "Heartbeat City" by The Cars written by Ric Ocasek

The scene is set, Saul has tried to kill David not once, but twice. David loves Saul. David is all but a brother to Jonathan, Saul's son. Sure, David had more hits than Saul in the war, but he had more at bats too. No problem. Saul's getting older and David's the up and comer from Triple-A. It's the way of life in the Bigs. I guess Saul's throw isn't like it used to be and David could escape.

So David makes his way to Gath, the land of Goliath. He's afraid of King Achish and his guard too. So he does he first thing that comes to mind. He looks like a crazy man. It was pretty effective too. The amount of drool that he must have generated to make it run down and out of his beard must have been impressive. Frothy? Perhaps. What does it mean to "act like a madman?" What did he use to make "marks on the doors of the gate?" It's not like he had a pen or a steele. What could he have used? One guess is a rock. After that it gets crazy... and gross.

He kept it going till the sun fell down. He kept it
going.

Eventually, the King welcomed David into a chamber and gave him the sword of Goliath. He used it to help fulfill his destiny for Israel.

David got what he wanted. David became the ruler of Israel. With the exception of a couple of glaring exceptions, he was the man God wanted and needed him to be. He was the man God wanted. God was who David wanted.

The Cars sing "You might think I'm crazy, All I want is you." Doesn't sound crazy to me.

What Appears to Be Insane

Acts 26:24-25

While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!” But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.

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Welcome to my breakdown.
I hope I didn't scare you.
That's just the way we are when we come down.

"Welcome to My Nightmare" by Alice Cooper

One of the most difficult things about being a Christian is that to the world we're all kind of crazy. We believe in love. We believe in redemption. We believe no one is beyond the reach of God's redemptive work. Where this gets crazy is that if we believe no one is beyond redemption we had better believe that no one is beyond redemption. The moment we put limits on God's redeeming work, we put limits on God.

Sharing this truth has put Christians in a pickle since the beginning of Christ's ministry. Men left the family business. Men left their homes and families. Followers suffered scorn, ridicule, pain and even death. What's crazy is that they continued their mission!

We can always depend on the Holy Spirit to give us the words we need to share the Good News, but we can't guarantee people will be ready to hear it, or at least to accept it. Festus heard the word, but he was not ready to hear it. He declared Paul out of his mind. "Too much learning is driving you insane!" Festus was scared, frightened by the words Paul spoke and he could not fathom them. Instead he declared the Apostle coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Friends, share the good news with your neighbors and you will risk the same rejection. Jesus tells us that we will be rejected by some, but he will never reject us. When people call us crazy we need to welcome them to our breakdown. It's just the way people often hear the word of God when it first comes down to them.

That's fine too, we aren't alone. Many have been called that sort of crazy before the Apostle. Many have been called that sort of crazy for speaking the sober truth. In Christ there is no nightmare, there is no breakdown--it'll just look that way to some people.