In Your Right Mind
Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. – Mark 5:15.
In Quetta, Pakistan Ghulam Raza likes to smoke scorpions when they are in season. He takes the scorpion stingers and dries them in the sun and then grinds them into a powder. He then smokes this powder. Ghulam claims that when he smokes scorpion that heroin is “nothing to me.” Ghulam and his friends find the scorpions in the Quetta cemetery. Sometimes when they are hunting scorpions high on heroin or scorpion powder, they may fall into one of the open graves. Ghulam was a mechanical engineer, but years ago became an addict through the use of painkillers during recovery after being shot 18 times.
One thing is obvious about Ghulam Raza and the obvious thing is that he is not in his “right mind.” If Ghulam were in his “right mind” he would not be hunting scorpions in the Quetta cemetery. Most likely, he would instead be employed as a mechanical engineer contributing to society. If he was in his “right mind” his home would not be a cemetery, but a nice house in which he would live with his family. If Ghulam were in his “right mind” his thoughts would not be of how many scorpions he could catch, but instead he would have thoughts perhaps of his family, his work, and of God.
Are you in your right mind? What are your goals, ambitions, dreams, and thoughts about? Your mind may not be in the sad condition of Ghulam Raza but is your mind where it should be? The Gadara Demoniac knew that the only way to have a right mind was to have Jesus in his life. There is still One today who can give even Ghulam Raza a right mind, and that One is Jesus. What about you? Allow Jesus to renew a right mind in you. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).”
(There is only one way to obtain and to maintain a right mind.)