(This post was originally composed on March 3, 2018. I finally got around to uploading it on April 30. That might well be an example of the truth of the post).
After a few weeks of chaos, things are gradually getting back to normal. (He said hopefully.)
Does life work that way for you? I’m thinking there’s a good chance it does.
You keep looking down the road, knowing that the wonderful, familiar oasis known as “normal” is just around the next corner or over the next rise.
If you can just hang in there a little bit longer, you’ll make it back to normal.
You’ll be home.
Equilibrium will be restored.
Rest will happen.
Life will make sense again.
Don’t we wish!
Have you ever heard anyone talk about adjusting to the “new normal?”
It tends to happen when we finally concede that things will never be the way they once were and that a new reality has replaced the old one.
Maybe a better way of saying that is that we become dis-illusioned with normal—we give up the illusion that “normal” is something we can ever get “back” to.
I once heard a classic answer to someone who said they were disillusioned. “Good,” the wise sage answered, “now that illusion is out of the way, we can focus on reality.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that “normal” is a constantly-moving, consistently-illusive target.
Just when you think you’re almost there, a life-storm happens and, when the dust settles, you realize that “normal” moved just out of reach.
Again.
So maybe we should stop searching for normal and start seeking alignment.
Maybe the wonderful, familiar oasis of “normal” is nothing more than a desert mirage because life is a journey rather than a destination and success is about how you travel rather than how efficiently you get there.
Is it possible for us to align our lives for traveling well irrespective of the particular circumstances of the moment?
Psalm 64:10 says, “The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will glory in him!”
It’s easy to look at that verse and focus on words like “righteous … rejoice … refuge … upright … glory …”
But, I want us to notice these words: “… in the Lord … in him … in him …”
Alignment.
If we miss “in him” we will never get to righteous and upright, rejoice and glory.
My own life is not as chaotic starting out this week as it has been the previous ones.
But “normal?”
Never again.
A dear friend told me just today, “I lost normal a long time ago and never missed it.
That, my friends, is a person who understands that her life matters to God. She’s on a journey of discovery and she understands that strength for the journey is found in aligning our lives with the One who is both the way and the destination.
So, I ask you, will you join me today in dis-illusioning ourselves from fruitless attempts to return to “normal” and aligning ourselves “in Him” on the journey of discovering who we really are?
