Beyond a Return to Normal

We have a strange relationship with normal. Bumper stickers have lamented why be normal? Others have quipped, "Normal is only a setting on the dryer." At the same time there is an invitation to claim a sense of what is normal in our lives. Granted, what is normal for one person might be far from normal for another, there is still a pull toward normal.

In these days I get the sense of people craving for things to return to normal. Meaning, the way they were before COVID-19 disrupted all that feels normal. The life when we could come and go as we pleased. When we could visit our favorite restaurant and sit there in conversation for hours. Return to the days with children in school. Return to attending church in person each week. Basically, returning to life as we had come to know it as normal.

The struggle I am having with normal is what I take for granted during times of normal. Many of the things listed above are on the list for sure, however there are some more important items. It is easy to take for granted the opportunity to be in community with other people thinking that opportunity will always be there. I can easily think of some of the hopes and dreams and the way normal helps me delay the chasing of those dreams thinking I will always have another season to chase those dreams. Perhaps a more challenging and provocative question normal helps me evade is the question of purpose, am I fulfilling the purpose for which I have been created? For those reading who are Christ followers, this is the question of calling. Am I truly living my calling or am I just working a job to maintain normalcy in my life?

Normal demands we do not ask profound questions about existence and need for community. It begs questions geared at preservation, protection, and predictability, (Isn't alliteration fun). What if we have entered a situation that is providing an opportunity to go beyond normal? Many reading this are facing what most likely will be weeks of non-normal living. Many will be given the gift of time to consider life. We are being given an opportunity to quite the call of normal in order to listen for the invitation of God. This is beyond some quite time in the morning. This disruption of normal has afforded the opportunity to seek God in a deeper way often seized.

What if this season is the season you and I will claim our what if? I am hoping when the all clear is given and we are free to move about the country, gather in community, work in ways other than a remote desktop, that we will go beyond normal. The prayer for my life, you, the church, and the world, is that we would never be the same again.

In this season of social distancing it might feel like it is hard to talk with someone about this. If you would like to chat send me a message and we can set up a phone call or a zoom video call.