I recently saw a very inspiring movie. At one point the daughter had an idea that she was very excited about. When her father, who was domineering and controlling, heard the idea and asked her if she had lost her mind, the daughter responded, “Maybe I found it.”
It immediately spoke to my heart of not being afraid to step out and go with an idea even if someone whose opinion I value thinks I’ve lost my mind. Perhaps you have had an idea that was unusual, different or unconventional. You may have heard one or more of the following:
- Are you crazy?
- Have you lost your mind?
- That will never work
- Who do you think you are?
- You will fail
- You will look like an idiot
- You will lose money
- That has already been tried and it didn’t work
- You will make all of the team look bad
Several months ago, I read Mark 5:35,36 in The Message:
“While he was still talking, some people came from the leader’s house and told him, ‘your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?’ Jesus overheard what they were talking about and said to the leader, ‘don’t listen to them; just trust me.’ ”
I thought—some may come to me and say my plan, my dream, my idea is dead, why continue to pray about it. I hear Jesus say to me, don’t listen to them. Just trust me. There will always be people who’ll rain on my parade—who’ll find fault with every new and creative idea I may have.
I should be very careful who I listen to. Sometimes I should not even listen to myself: My own negative, unbelieving, doubting thinking which can prevent me from stepping out and trying. When I talk to myself, I should watch my language. Dave, have you lost your mind? Maybe I’ve found it!
Maybe I should be willing to:
- Color outside the lines
- Think outside the box
- March to a different drum beat
- Be myself because everyone else is taken
- Not let people who say it can’t be done stand in the way of those doing it
It was Mark Twain who said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the things you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
I love it!
Ships are safe in the harbor, but that’s not why ships are built!
Let me close this post with a provocative thought from Robert Fulghum’s simple but profound book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
The statisticians figure that about 60 billion people have been born so far, and yet with all the possibilities for variation among the sex cells produced by each person’s parents, it seems quite certain that each one of the billions of human beings who has ever existed has been distinctly different from every other human being and that this will continue for the indefinite future. In other words, if you were to line up on one side of the earth every human being who ever lived or ever will live and you took a good look at the whole motley crowd, you wouldn’t find anybody quite like you.
Dave, have you lost your mind? Maybe I found it!
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