Right Use of our Minds

 Good afternoon.

 A few days ago, I was in our multi-purpose area of the church building.  I noticed someone setting up chairs and tables for a grief group meeting later that evening.  I engaged him in some conversation, and a short time later learned that he was my first cousin once removed.  Now, you may not be fully aware of what a “once-removed” cousin is, so I’ll tell you.  First cousins are people who have parents who are siblings.  If my dad and your mom are brother and sister, that makes us first cousins.

Once-removed first cousins are people, one of whom has a parent who is a sibling to another person who is a grand parent to the cousin once removed.  So, if my dad and your grandmother are siblings, you are a first cousin once removed in relation to me.

In any event, we reconnected and talked about relatives now gone.  I’ll call him Jim.  Jim’s grandmother was my aunt on my dad’s side of the family.  His father Vernon, my aunt’s son, was a Psychiatrist.  His practice began, I think, in the later 1950’s.  He had a long and successful career in that field of practice.

What makes that unusual was the fact that Jim’s family was part of a faith denomination that, at least in that day, seemed to not fully understand mental health issues and tended to either dismiss them or treat those illnesses as something mysterious and unknown.  Those who suffered from mental health issues were often said to be “not right,” a kind of catch-all phrase to explain away something that most didn’t understand and weren’t interested in discussing.  There was even sometimes the notion that something sinister was going on with the mentally ill…that somehow the devil or Satan was involved in creating the state of being “not right.”

I asked Jim how it was that his dad came to be a Psychiatrist at a time when his faith community held a generally negative viewpoint on mental health and mental illness.  Jim told me it all stemmed from a prayer that was given by Vernon’s grandfather Sol…my grandfather too.  Intrigued, I asked him for more information.

Jim told me that back in that day when prayers were given at family gatherings, usually before meals, and usually by the family patriarch, a common sentence of that prayer in that faith tradition would be asking God to, “Give us the right use of our hands.”

Jim told me that when his dad, Vernon, was just a boy of about five years old, he was at one of those family gatherings, and his grandfather Sol was asked to say the blessing before dinner.  As part of his prayer, Sol said, “Give us the right use of our minds,” instead of the normal sentence referring to the right use of hands.

That phrase stuck with the five year old Vernon.  He heard that same phrase more times from Grandfather Sol in the next year or two…then told his mom that he wanted to grow up to help people have the right use of their minds.  That began Vernon on the long road to Psychiatry where he ended his incredible career decades later at Prairie View in Newton, Kansas.

That phrase strikes me as well, even today.  I’m not sure exactly what Sol meant when he invoked the blessing of God to the right use of our minds.  It could have more than one meaning.  But to even consider asking God for such a thing, even today, is not common.  And then…well…it was probably unheard of, except when Sol was praying.

It could mean something similar to the verse of the old hymn, “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.”  The first verse says, “Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways.  Reclothe us in our rightful minds; in purer lives our service find.  In deeper reverence, praise.”

We all fall short of God’s expectations.  We all sin.  We all struggle with living pure lives.  We all are participants in “foolish ways.”  Sol was well aware of the “foolish ways” of mankind.  His life was not a bed of roses, in part due to the “foolish ways” of both himself and others.  That phrase may be a plea for God to help us live pure lives of service.

Or, it could mean exactly what Vernon had in mind…asking God to heal our mental health issues and give us minds that we can use which are free of those struggles.  Sol had a son, Robert, that “wasn’t right,” as many phrased it, and died young back in the 1920’s.  Sol may well have had Robert in mind, which could have been the impetus for that sentence in his prayers.  And God very well could respond positively to that plea by sending people who are especially equipped, such as Vernon was, to help people regain the right use of their minds.

Either way, that sentence in those prayers had an effect…a positive effect…and it seems that God answered that prayer by sending Vernon into the psychiatric profession...possibly along with countless others…in service to humanity to give us “the right use of our minds.”