Normal

"I can't wait for things to get back to normal!"

I think we are all very familiar with this statement. If you're at all like me, you've said it many times yourself over the last year or so. Whether we're talking about meeting as a church, going out to eat, hanging out with friends and family, or a myriad of other activities. We are tired of all the stress and upheaval and long for things to return to "normal."

The problem is the idea of "normal" life doesn't actually exist. Think about it: if I asked you to remember the time in your life when everything was most "normal," what would you say? Would you talk about your childhood? Would you talk about a year and a half ago? Would you pick a moment somewhere in between those two when you felt happiest?

When we say we want things to go back to normal, what we mean is we want this something we are experiencing now to change. We don't like going to church with masks on, so we want things to go back to a time when we didn't have to wear them. We don't like the tension and animosity we see in politics, so we want to go back to a time when that was less acutely felt. We don't like watching our kids or grandkids sitting around the living room, playing on their phones, and not talking to each other, so we wish to go back to a time when those distractions weren't there. The list is endless.

And those desires for things of the past are, at least mostly, good things to long for. But they aren't "normal."

There is this tendency when comparing life as we live it now with good times in the past. But we forget that those times had their struggles, difficulties, frustrations, and disappointments. When that happens, when we compare the complexity of life today directly to only the good things about the past, today begins to look pretty bleak. The world today feels somehow worse or less than we remember it. Reality always loses out to fantasy.

And that gets me to the point of this article: the only "normal" life God has for us to live in is the one we are in right now. This life now with its celebrations, its difficulties, its beauty, and its pain. Normal life is always made up of this diverse array of experiences and always will be because we sit in a world that has both dark and light, good and evil. Living in this struggle, this tension, right now is what's "normal."

That is not to say we shouldn't long for things to be better, greater, or simpler, but we are called to be present right here and right now. To realize the only normal life we will ever lead is the moment that God has given us now.

When the Israelites were being led out of Egypt by Moses and wandering in the desert, they continuously looked to their lives before and grumbled about where God had them now. It didn't matter that they were slaves before: their memories of the good things made them long to go back. They focused more on what used to be than they focused on how God was calling them to live right where they were. And this lack of faith, this lack of seeing where God was at work now, meant God had them wander for 40 years in the desert. They needed to learn trust and contentment in him regardless of where he had them.

If there is one "normal" that God wants us to live into, it is to trust him and live with gentleness and grace in our world at all times, no matter the circumstances. In Paul's letter to the Philippian church, he reminded them to do precisely that:

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

Paul goes on a few verses later to say he has learned to be content in every situation because Christ gives him the strength to let things go. Christ roots him right where he is at no matter what's going on. Our faith, and the gift of Christ to us, is to stay rooted and grounded in the fact that God holds us no matter what is going on in the world. Our calling as Christians never changes no matter what the world looks like: we are to live rejoicing in God and displaying gentleness and hope.

That should be the "normal" we strive for.

I find myself asking, in our world today, do I long for and emphasize wanting to get back to "normal" to the detriment of living contentedly right here, right now? Do my memories of various things I enjoyed from my past keep me from joyfully living in this moment as God would have me? I wonder the same for you.

Life will always have its ups and downs, heartaches and celebrations, green pastures and valleys of the shadow of death. That is "normal" life and this moment in time is no different. And it never will be in the future.

What we get to do is decide what our normal attitude toward the world and God is. Do we, like the Israelites, keep looking to the past, or can we stay right here and now and let God guide us, transform us and bring his gentleness, goodness, and grace to the world through us?

I pray my "normal" is the latter, and I pray it is for you as well. Together we can bring God's "normal" to our world. It needs it.

Wherever you are, stay on mission! Grace and peace.

Trevor Owen

Pastor of Spiritual Formation