Crazymakers are all around us. They’re like those squirrels that dart across the road—unpredictable, erratic, and somehow always in your way.
Julia Cameron describes them well in The Artist’s Way:
Crazymakers are those personalities that create storm centers… You know the type: charismatic but out of control, long on problems and short on solutions… Crazymakers like drama.
Where there are people, they are: the one family member you gotta muster the energy up for evey though you see them only once a year at family gatherings but that feels like too much. Ot it’s the annoying coworker who won’t just hush and do their work or worse, makes your work harder to do. It’s the problematically loud Karen at the gas station, yelling over 2 cents. It’s the person cutting you off in traffic with a side of road rage.
Regardless where you see them, their specialty? Stirring up chaos and confusion, leaving you drained, bewildered, and wondering if you’re the crazy one. Spoiler alert: You’re not. They’re not evil, but they are sick—acting out of pain, trauma, or just plain bad patterns. And when I see them as sick the same way I see my clients coming to me for help, it’s easier to manage them. It becomes easier to love them from a distance. To wish them well… And keeps it pushing.
The thing about crazymakers is they can’t help themselves. Well, they certainly can, but they choose not to. Whether it’s unresolved trauma, deep insecurities, or unmet needs, their behavior often manifests as manipulation, projection, or outright hostility. It can be tempting to throw a verbal punch or take on the role of their personal therapist.
But here’s the simple truth: their healing is not your homework. What we can carry is discernment—the God-given ability to see their crazy and their chaos for what it is without letting it derail our peace. (Can I get an amen, somebody?!)
Think of discernment as your spiritual GPS. It whispers when to reroute, when to slow down, and when to take the next exit entirely. It’s not about judging or condemning crazymakers but about knowing your role—or lack thereof—in their journey. The most loving thing you can do, IMHO, is to step out of their swirling storm, let go, and let God to work gently and deeply within them like She did on me! After all, God’s much better equipped than we are to deal with their mess. And isn’t that what we say in church? God turns messiness into testimonies??
Here’s the kicker: crazymakers don’t have to upend your peace unless you hand it over to them. With discernment, you can navigate their drama without getting pulled into it. Picture yourself as a duck on a pond—water (and their chaos) just rolls off your back. You can pray for them, hope for their healing, and still keep your boundaries intact. Remember, boundaries aren’t walls; they’re fences with gates. You get to decide what comes in and what stays out.
Let’s take a moment to lift them up in prayer—and also ourselves, because let’s be honest, we need it, and so do they!
And so, we close with the we version or the Serenity Prayer and The Sick Man’s Prayer:
The Serenity Prayer
God, grant us the Serenity to accept the things we cannot change. Courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Your will and ours be done.
The Sick Man’s Prayer
God, when a person offends me, help me to remember this is a sick person.
Help me show the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend.
Show me how can I help them.
Save me from being angry.
Thy will be done.
And so it is. It is already done. Amen!
