ECCLESIASTES 9:3
This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
When you say madness or insanity to a man, in normal speaking, men understand it as something that has to do with disturbance of the brain.
That is the definition that men understand. But the definition of the Bible is fuller than that. The Bible divides insanity into two kinds.
There is the normal one you understand, known as insanity of the brain. Then there is a greater one called the madness of the heart.
When you talk about the normal madness human beings understand, a person may start having feelings of depression, sadness, and not wanting to talk to people.
He may claim that he is an introvert, but he does not want to talk to people. It is an inner depression.
A person may have this feeling of despair and loneliness even though he is among many people. Men call it madness or mental disturbance.
The person may begin to lose energy, although he is eating and resting well, and may be suffering from unexplainable exhaustion.
It is part of what men call depression. As a believer, he has lost control of his own life. He does not want to do anything. Men call this insanity.
The person may lose control over his personal profession. The person may be filled with anger, frustration, and a lack of patience and spark up at any small thing. He is mad, although he looks normal.
The person may lose identity, purpose, and meaning in life. He may have this sense of being abandoned by God; he does not want to pray again, trust God again, or come to church again.
He may not even have self-confidence. Sometimes such people go into spontaneous crying and weeping, and people do not know why.
Sometimes they just feel inadequate, and sometimes they just withdraw from everyday routine, lock themselves up in a room, and do not want to talk to anyone, although they are not violent. It is insanity.
It is another level when they turn violent and begin to fight everybody, including themselves, like by cutting themselves with objects. It is insanity.
*Sometimes, such people have this feeling of letting life just go. Any small thing that goes wrong, they are very quick to blame others, and they keep saying they are tired of everything.*
That is why somebody defined insanity or madness as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. No. It is not so.
You keep doing the same thing over and over, hoping that somehow it will transform into something different. It is insanity.
Let us take the spiritual life, for instance. You want a change in your spiritual life. You are tired of having no vision, no revelation, not hearing anything, or not becoming a spiritual giant.
But it is still the same amount of Bible reading you are doing, the same amount of prayer, and the same amount of going to church, and you think there will be a different result? That is spiritual madness.
Nothing will change until you do something different.
The Yorubas say, “When you want to become what others have never become, you have to do what others have never done. And if you want to do what others have never done, you have to suffer some inconvenience.”
It is not going to be easy. Nobody will tell you that it is easy. A man who is used to eating breakfast every day at 7 a.m. all of a sudden realised that he was being suffocated on the bed and decided to go on a 7-day prayer and fast.
Such a man has taken a drastic step, doing something he has never done before. Definitely, it will yield results.
The truth is this: if you continue this level of quiet time, this level of kindergarten prayers you are praying, this level of vigil, and this level of Bible reading, you will remain as you are. Let me not deceive you.
Until you do something drastic, you remain the same. I am just diverting to your spiritual life to explain this spiritual insanity.
For a change to occur, some may need to increase their solitary time with God.
Some may need to increase their fasting. Some may need to avoid certain foods, habits, or interactions.
Some may need to say bye to certain friends because their friendship is bringing them down spiritually.
Some may need to do a deeper reading of the scriptures. Some may have to read 10 chapters of the Bible per day.
When you are doing something entirely different like that, things will change. So, to keep doing regular things like that and expecting things to be different is madness spiritual insanity.
The truth is that there are many mad people walking about on our streets with clothes on. Serpents in three-piece suits.
