Sunday, July 24, 2011

Normal

Is there really such thing as normal? Did there use to be a normal standard (as spelled out in the Bible) but due to a steady drift away from the church and the Bible and anything remotely close to Christianity, have we lost sight of what should be normal and what isn't?

Look at any dictionary or thesaurus you want and you'll get some definitions and keywords like this:


Conforming to the standard or to the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. 


Dictionary.com, in addition to the definition above, had these to say about normal as well.

Free from any mental illness; sane.
Approximately average in any psychological trait, intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment.



Mental illness is abnormal? Physical illness probably is too, then. Most people have something physically "wrong" with them ranging from arthritis to impacted wisdom teeth to some complications due to pregnancy to cancer to asthma. Does that make everybody affected by something like this not normal?


Who exactly is to judge what is normal or not anyway? Who decided that in order for women to be attractive their bones have to be sticking out and a size 0 pant needs a belt to keep it from slipping off bony hips? Why is it that young people feel the need to "stand out from the crowd" by getting all sorts of piercings and tattoos? (the only problem with that is they only stand out from one crowd, while they fit in with another crowd who's done the same thing). 


Kids who are sick with some chronic disease usually say something along the lines of "I just want to be like other kids, you know, normal." What they really mean to say is "I don't want to have (fill in the blank) anymore." 


I think I've come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as normal. Not now, at least. At one point in time, there was normal. It was the one time on earth when everything was perfect and that was shortly after the world was created and filled with oceans, plants, animals and, the finishing touch, people.


Adam and Eve were perfect and being perfect was normal. Having free will is normal. Being curious is normal. And if Adam and Eve had been able to not give in to the temptation to sin... someone else would have. Because, maybe our sin natures our normal too, otherwise God wouldn't have had to come die for us so we can be saved from ourselves.


Never mind, there is such a thing as normal, and it's not a good thing. It's not normal to dress modestly, to date someone without sleeping together, to go to church regularly, to read the Bible, to not yell hurtful words when you're angry, to give food to the homeless.


"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me [God] before it hated you." John 15:8


I was one of those kids that wanted to be "like everybody else" but not anymore. I don't want to be normal. I want to be like God. And NOTHING about Him was normal in our crazy mixed up world of "fitting in." 




Just some random thoughts I've been thinking about lately. Is there anything you have to add? Do you agree? Disagree? Did you ever just want to fit in and then realize that it was better to just be the you that God made? Share your thoughts in the comments below, I want to know what you think. :-)



1 comment:

  1. Good post!
    I have found that "normal" is a poor and shifty target to aim for. When I let go of normal and my right to judge what is normal, when I aim instead to know God in everyday life, I find that I am more original than ever! =) I also find that I have more compassion for others because I'm not spending time comparing them to "normal".

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