Keep Talkin' To Yourself; People Will Think You're Crazy

By George Lawson

There is a scene in the Pixar film Cars where Lightning McQueen is complaining out loud to himself as he is serving his sentence for ruining the main road through Radiator Springs.  While talking to himself, he passes by a car named Lizzie sitting alone on a porch who says… “You keep talkin’ to yourself; people will think you’re crazy.”  McQueen sarcastically says, “Thanks for the tip!” to which Lizzie replies, “Uh- what?  I wasn’t talking to you!”

“You keep talkin’ to yourself; people will think you’re crazy.”  In some cases that might very well be true.  But is talking to yourself a clear indication of insanity?  The Psalmists didn’t think so.  On several occasions these biblical counselors made an appointment with their own souls.  Here are a few examples:

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.
Psalm 42:5

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits;
Psalm 103:1-2

Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
Psalm 116:7

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
Psalm 146:1

Thomas Vincent, the English Puritan, in a similar way counsels his own soul in the book, The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ.   Listen to his words:

“Why do you hang downwards, O my soul?  Why do you bend so much to the earthly things?  What is there here below that is not beneath you and altogether unworthy of your love?  How empty and vain and thorny are these things?  Do not waste your time, weary yourself for every vanity’ do not prick and wound yourself with these things anymore.  What ails you, O my soul that you are so backward to the love of Christ…O my soul are you so drenched in the flesh that visible objects shall have more power to draw down your heart than this most glorious object shall have power to draw up your heart?”
(p. 77)

Do earthly things have more power to draw your heart down than the most glorious Christ has the power to draw your heart up? 

What a powerful and convicting example of self counsel that we would do well to imitate.   Friends, we need to make frequent appointments with our own souls.  How many sins would we avoid if we were resolved to preach the truth to ourselves? “If we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31).  

“You keep talkin’ to yourself people may think you’re crazy.”  But sometimes talking to ourselves is the only way to keep their accusation from being true.

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