Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

As I was watching a new movie called “The Professor and the Mad Man” with Mell Gibson (Professor James Murry) and Sean Penn (Dr. William Chester Minor). Many emotions came to my mind. This film is very complicated and well done.

It’s a true story about how the first Oxford English Dictionary was created and the unlikely friendship that evolved between a Scottish autodidact and a schizophrenic, PTSD-suffering American civil war veteran.

These two became the most unlikely of friends. Sean Penn plays the part of the mad man, Dr. James Murry, who is in an English prison for the insane in 1879. 

In his mind, he is haunted by some of the ghosts of the past and thinks they are following him and wanting him to pay a price for what he has done. He thinks these ghosts have not forgiven him and do not think God has either.

It eventually made him crazy and irrational. 

(Left) Mell Gibson as Professor James Murry –  (right) Sean Penn as Dr. William Minor

Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

In this haze of PTSD, Dr. Minor teams up with Professor Murry on how to put together this very complicated dictionary and become friends in the process. Working on this project, Dr. Minor’s symptoms are reduced because his mind is being occupied with the work.  

Eventually, he would again descend back into madness because of an unfortunate event in prison. Dr. Minor said something very interesting to Professor Murry when he came to visit him to find out what happened.

“God makes you pay a heavy toll for your past sins.”

How many of us believe deep down inside that God makes us pay a heavy toll for our past behaviors and indiscretions and we need to pay back for what we have done? 

Many of us do not think we are worthy to be forgiven and replay our past over and over trying to make sense out of what we have done. 

Sometimes other people that we have injured do not want to forgive us. It is still too painful for them. They want us to pay a heavy toll. Some people are just so filled with anger that no amount of payback will work to fix the wrong, real or imagined, that has occurred.

We also can be consumed by this fire that burns inside of us because of anger towards someone else. We too can replay the event over and over until we begin to descend into madness. 

How do we overcome this sinful human condition of anger and unforgiveness? This terrible cycle we seem to find ourselves in all too often.

Jesus Christ is the only way.

What amazing God Christians serve! He has made a way out of this madness of unforgiveness and sin. By turning himself into a human and walking among us and eventually dying at our hands. This sinless entity took all of our bad behaviors and evil ways and piled them on His shoulders and took them to the grave forever.

We are now forgiven.

Forgiven completely and not just a little bit. It has to be all or nothing in God’s eyes. Nothing can be left over to haunt us and take us back into the madness of unforgiveness. God does not want that for His children who He loves so much.

“What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” Psalm 8:4 (NKJV)

Dr. Minor’s madness was rooted in the past. In his mind, he just could not be forgiven because all the people he thought he had harmed were dead and gone so there was no way he could make it up to them. They kept haunting him and driving insane. It was an eye for an eye from the Old Testament and could not be appeased. 

Jesus came with a new message in the New Testament. Judgment was cast aside for a better, sane way of life and relationships. All we have to do is ask the Creator of the universe to come into our lives. Put our pride on hold and tell Him we need help. Become born again into a new life and a new thought process.

Forgiveness allows us to start over again no matter what we have done. It gives us hope to start again and knowing we are not alone. Our mentor becomes God Himself and the Bible the driver’s manual.

This will truly keep us sane.

I think God designed us to be forgiven because we all have done things in our lives to other people great and small. We cannot help it because of the sin nature we were born with. Scripture tells us in:

 Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

There is also a terrible price to pay if we do not forgive. From God’s word, it says in:

Matt: 6:14-15  “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

In other words, if you do not forgive others you are condemning yourself. Now if that is not madness, I do not know what is.

As I write this out, I am searching myself if I have not forgiven others of their transgressions towards me. I do not want God to deal with me in this unforgiving way. After He has given me a way out of the insanity I do not want to go back to that life.

Now that’s a scary thought. I have already asked God to forgive me for thinking that.

If you would like to know about this great movie “The Professor and the Madman”

Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

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Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.