Mental Health Crisis
1They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. 3He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains, 4because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him. 5Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. 6When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, 7and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.” 8For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9He asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. 12All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.” 13At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. 14Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened. 15They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid. 16Those who saw it declared to them what happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs. 17They began to beg him to depart from their region. 18As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.” 20He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
The man in this story lives among tombs, cut off from everyone, hurting himself, beyond anyone's ability to restrain or to help. He is the person everyone has given up on — including, perhaps, himself. Jesus crosses a lake, through a storm, apparently for him alone; the boat turns around and goes home after this one meeting. And the ending is quietly enormous: the man is found 'sitting, clothed, and in his right mind.' Peace of mind is not a fringe miracle in the gospels — it is worth the whole journey. However far outside your own life you feel right now, you are not too far to be reached, and reaching you is not an inconvenience.
The man's healing began before he could ask clearly for it. If you cannot find the words right now, can you let that be all right — and let help come anyway?
God, my mind does not feel like a safe place to be right now, and I am frightened of my own thoughts. I don't have this under control, and pretending is taking the last strength I have. You crossed a storm for one person everyone else had written off — cross whatever needs crossing to get to me. Quiet what is screaming. Guard me tonight from the pull toward harm. Put people in my path who know how to help, and give me the courage to let them. I want what that man was given: to sit, to breathe, to be in my right mind. Stay very close. Amen.