My thoughts on the topic of normal shift drastically from time to time. I don't know an external catalyst always exists, maybe just a change in how I view the world around me. There have been times where I've been absolutely certain the term normal only applied to a setting on my dryer. Other times I've struggled and strived with all the effort I could muster to simply appear normal myself. This has left me stumped some days, desperate other days, and even times of recklessly not caring. For the most part it's a topic I generally try to avoid because in my own drastically varying opinion, I'm left wondering if anyone actually has a singular definition.
I think it's probably somewhat normal to keep conversations with complete strangers on reasonably safe topics. One I hear regularly is talking about the weather. So maybe that's where I'll start. It is normal for summer to be warm and winter to be colder. When it seems drastic one way or the other people tend to notice and comment on it more. Where I live it isn't considered normal to have many weeks in a row above 100°. When there is an entire week of hot like that it seems noteworthy and it's referenced commonly in grocery store check out lines. If it remains abnormally hot for a long time, people acclimate and talk about it less. This tendency I've observed eventually leads to the assumed normalcy of the weather since everyone has more or less gotten used to it. This will fairly consistently create a reference point that the sudden reappearance of a 75°-80° day will be called unusually cold instead of normal. This intrigues me in a variety of ways and clearly defines what we see as normal depends on our point of reference and what we've acclimated ourselves to.
I think it's time to move further and deeper. We all live in varying societies that seem to hold the responsibility for what we call normal. At first glance anything that stands out is considered abnormal or weird, or simply odd. I think this is primarily because we have acclimated ourselves to accept what goes on around us. In this we create stereotypes and labels to try and make sense of things that confuse us. When things don't fit in these society driven definitions we suddenly find ourselves faced with decisions of right and wrong that we ourselves didn't want to be responsible for.
The world we live in we've created ourselves. Dare we forget that we all added together are society? I hear people complain about society as if it doesn't include them. I hear hearts saddened by the way society is but I hear powerlessness in it as if no one can actually do or change anything. It is absolutely true that we cannot control other people. We see problems and create more laws and continue trying to control society from the outside. It seems normal this way.
The flaw in this logic is defining normal simply based on what is common. We acclimate ourselves to think that aspects within all this are normal. Common does not mean normal. So what are we left with? What if normal is seen as what is best and healthiest for us? What if we made our decisions on normal as what is loving and good and true? Would this be normal or weird in the world we live in?
We see mostly what we expect to see. We call this normal and decide somehow that it is true. We are given statistics which drive our expectations to continue to be met. We acclimate our beliefs around what we see occurring instead of identifying our beliefs and changing ourselves. We expect to see a hurting world and believe ourselves to small to do anything about it. We criticize and condemn what other people are doing and ignore what is actually within our reach. We expect abnormal actions because of how common they are.
I want to throw out a few more personal thoughts. My background positions in life have messed up my view of what is normal. Scenarios of physical sexual spiritual and emotional abuse, lack of adequate food clothing and shelter, neglect, violence, addictions,suicide, moving from place to place, multiple parental divorces, and just overall unstable situations..... led me toward believing many of these things were more or less normal. It shaped my view of society as a whole. It shaped my expectations. Because of what was acclimated to there are very few things that I hear and see that I find shocking at all. Yet ironically it seems very odd to come across people in our society that have not had these things in their background. Almost seeming abnormal. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
The truth is it is not normal for people to hurt each other. It is not normal for children to go without basic needs. It is not normal for marriages to break apart. It is not normal for any human to not be loved. It is not normal when addictions replace real comfort. It is not normal that these things are so acceptable in society that nobody even says anything anymore. It is not normal to shame people into silence. It is not normal to close our eyes and pretend it's all ok.
It is normal that we defend the weak. It is normal that we comfort the hurting. It is normal that we speak up about why this isn't normal. It is normal to feed the hungry. It is normal to clothe people. It is normal to heal the broken hearted. It is normal to want good for others. It is normal to expect more from the society we have because we are they. It is normal to believe we can make a different. It is normal to expect more that we can do alone. It is normal to live interdependent instead of self reliant independence. It is normal to believe God will intervene. It is normal to not turn away from hurt because we don't like how it makes us feel. It is normal to be uncomfortable. It is good when things that shouldn't be called normal make us uncomfortable.
I'm not suggesting we continue fighting amongst ourselves over various beliefs. I'm not suggesting that hating anything is a solution. We have enough groups of within society tearing each other down. When we get so caught up in who is right or wrong no one benefits. Not in one on one relationships or within society. I'm also not suggesting that right and wrong don't exist. If our own rightness is creating more problems rather than uniting solutions we might want to reassess our sense of normal. What is it we expect to see by feeding hurt with hurt and hatred with hatred? What if we started with ourselves? If we told our own story instead of focusing on everyone else's? What if we began loving what was within our reach instead of staying in complaining powerlessness. What if we stood up into the human beings we were created as? stopped hiding away the truth of our own brokenness and began telling the amazing stories of how God intervened in our own lives. How he reveals His Spirit in us when what is meant for evil turned into something beautiful. About the days when we didn't think we'd make it through and we're given strength that is not our own. Courage boldness the will to fight another day, surprises, friendship, love, joy, more patience than we can muster, the days of sudden inspiration, the phone call at just the right time, the near tragedy avoided, the random smile of a stranger, money that came when it was needed, grace over our mistakes, redemption when it wasn't humanly possible. .... We do have a ever present good God. He intervenes so consistently that we may call it coincidence or whatever, but all of those little odd moments just place a G in front of odd. It is more normal for God to be doing supernatural things in our lives, than any of the external abnormal things in our world we are expecting to see. While hurt may be common it is not normal but it does provide the ingredients to expect a miracle which has been God's normal stance on human suffering since the day suffering began to exist. There has been a way from that very moment for all of this to be redeemed.
Because he is good. Stand up and live. God's love is constant and this is normal.
I think it's probably somewhat normal to keep conversations with complete strangers on reasonably safe topics. One I hear regularly is talking about the weather. So maybe that's where I'll start. It is normal for summer to be warm and winter to be colder. When it seems drastic one way or the other people tend to notice and comment on it more. Where I live it isn't considered normal to have many weeks in a row above 100°. When there is an entire week of hot like that it seems noteworthy and it's referenced commonly in grocery store check out lines. If it remains abnormally hot for a long time, people acclimate and talk about it less. This tendency I've observed eventually leads to the assumed normalcy of the weather since everyone has more or less gotten used to it. This will fairly consistently create a reference point that the sudden reappearance of a 75°-80° day will be called unusually cold instead of normal. This intrigues me in a variety of ways and clearly defines what we see as normal depends on our point of reference and what we've acclimated ourselves to.
I think it's time to move further and deeper. We all live in varying societies that seem to hold the responsibility for what we call normal. At first glance anything that stands out is considered abnormal or weird, or simply odd. I think this is primarily because we have acclimated ourselves to accept what goes on around us. In this we create stereotypes and labels to try and make sense of things that confuse us. When things don't fit in these society driven definitions we suddenly find ourselves faced with decisions of right and wrong that we ourselves didn't want to be responsible for.
The world we live in we've created ourselves. Dare we forget that we all added together are society? I hear people complain about society as if it doesn't include them. I hear hearts saddened by the way society is but I hear powerlessness in it as if no one can actually do or change anything. It is absolutely true that we cannot control other people. We see problems and create more laws and continue trying to control society from the outside. It seems normal this way.
The flaw in this logic is defining normal simply based on what is common. We acclimate ourselves to think that aspects within all this are normal. Common does not mean normal. So what are we left with? What if normal is seen as what is best and healthiest for us? What if we made our decisions on normal as what is loving and good and true? Would this be normal or weird in the world we live in?
We see mostly what we expect to see. We call this normal and decide somehow that it is true. We are given statistics which drive our expectations to continue to be met. We acclimate our beliefs around what we see occurring instead of identifying our beliefs and changing ourselves. We expect to see a hurting world and believe ourselves to small to do anything about it. We criticize and condemn what other people are doing and ignore what is actually within our reach. We expect abnormal actions because of how common they are.
I want to throw out a few more personal thoughts. My background positions in life have messed up my view of what is normal. Scenarios of physical sexual spiritual and emotional abuse, lack of adequate food clothing and shelter, neglect, violence, addictions,suicide, moving from place to place, multiple parental divorces, and just overall unstable situations..... led me toward believing many of these things were more or less normal. It shaped my view of society as a whole. It shaped my expectations. Because of what was acclimated to there are very few things that I hear and see that I find shocking at all. Yet ironically it seems very odd to come across people in our society that have not had these things in their background. Almost seeming abnormal. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
The truth is it is not normal for people to hurt each other. It is not normal for children to go without basic needs. It is not normal for marriages to break apart. It is not normal for any human to not be loved. It is not normal when addictions replace real comfort. It is not normal that these things are so acceptable in society that nobody even says anything anymore. It is not normal to shame people into silence. It is not normal to close our eyes and pretend it's all ok.
It is normal that we defend the weak. It is normal that we comfort the hurting. It is normal that we speak up about why this isn't normal. It is normal to feed the hungry. It is normal to clothe people. It is normal to heal the broken hearted. It is normal to want good for others. It is normal to expect more from the society we have because we are they. It is normal to believe we can make a different. It is normal to expect more that we can do alone. It is normal to live interdependent instead of self reliant independence. It is normal to believe God will intervene. It is normal to not turn away from hurt because we don't like how it makes us feel. It is normal to be uncomfortable. It is good when things that shouldn't be called normal make us uncomfortable.
I'm not suggesting we continue fighting amongst ourselves over various beliefs. I'm not suggesting that hating anything is a solution. We have enough groups of within society tearing each other down. When we get so caught up in who is right or wrong no one benefits. Not in one on one relationships or within society. I'm also not suggesting that right and wrong don't exist. If our own rightness is creating more problems rather than uniting solutions we might want to reassess our sense of normal. What is it we expect to see by feeding hurt with hurt and hatred with hatred? What if we started with ourselves? If we told our own story instead of focusing on everyone else's? What if we began loving what was within our reach instead of staying in complaining powerlessness. What if we stood up into the human beings we were created as? stopped hiding away the truth of our own brokenness and began telling the amazing stories of how God intervened in our own lives. How he reveals His Spirit in us when what is meant for evil turned into something beautiful. About the days when we didn't think we'd make it through and we're given strength that is not our own. Courage boldness the will to fight another day, surprises, friendship, love, joy, more patience than we can muster, the days of sudden inspiration, the phone call at just the right time, the near tragedy avoided, the random smile of a stranger, money that came when it was needed, grace over our mistakes, redemption when it wasn't humanly possible. .... We do have a ever present good God. He intervenes so consistently that we may call it coincidence or whatever, but all of those little odd moments just place a G in front of odd. It is more normal for God to be doing supernatural things in our lives, than any of the external abnormal things in our world we are expecting to see. While hurt may be common it is not normal but it does provide the ingredients to expect a miracle which has been God's normal stance on human suffering since the day suffering began to exist. There has been a way from that very moment for all of this to be redeemed.
Because he is good. Stand up and live. God's love is constant and this is normal.