Sanity

“A June 2013 Gallup poll revealed that 70% of Americans hate their jobs or have “checked out” of them.”  According to Dr. Bruce Levine, young Americans especially are rebelling against an unpleasant life through what is termed mental illness.[1]  Depression is 10-20 times more common than it was 50 years ago and it has also become a young person’s setback. “Whereas 30 years ago the average age at which the first onset of depression occurred was 29.5, now the average age is between 14 and 15.”[2]A New York Times report in 2007 discovered that the number of children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder had increased 40-fold between 1994 and 2003. The Center for Disease Control shares the following: “A total of 13%–20% of children living in the United States experience a mental disorder in a given year, and surveillance during 1994–2011 has shown the prevalence of these conditions to be increasing.”[3]

Meditation
1 Samuel 20:23—Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.
 
Twice King Saul threw a spear at David, the young man who innocently played a lyre in order to soothe the man from his tormenting spirits.  Some would say his action was the logical extension of his jealous obsession with the popularity of the handsome warrior/musician about whom the woman loved to sing.  But then to throw a spear to kill his son Jonathan, the prince expected to reign after him, was clearly insane.  Saul momentarily lost his mind in his fierce rage.  Fortunately he was not an accurate spear thrower.

Oswald Chambers taught in Christian Disciplinethat “Sanity in ordinary human life is maintained by a right correspondence with the facts revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ.”   King Saul was derelict in following God’s will and it literally cost him his mind. He modeled what is increasingly prevalent today and should this surprise us? When a society is determined to turn its back on God the mind obliges with backward thinking.  The definition of sane is the judgment that comes from a healthy mind centered on following God’s will.  Good sense does not mean we understand life, nor does it come from favoring circumstances; it merely reflects our trusting the Maker of life . . . something to think about . . . in reveration.
 
©2013 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)
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​[1]Dr. Bruce Levine in “Why the Rise of Mental Illness? Pathologizing Normal, Adverse Drug Effects, and a Peculiar Rebellion
[2]Martin Seligman, president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, speaking to the National Press Club
[3]Center for Disease Control (CDC) report May 2013, “Mental Health Surveillance Among Children—United States, 2005-2011”