Placing an order in a caf\u00e9 recently, the server said, \u201cYou don\u2019t eat meat? That\u2019s weird.\u201d I responded, with a smile of course, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s way less weird to catch a beautiful creature, look into its frightened eyes, cut its throat as it struggles to get free, dismember its body, slice it in pieces, fry it up in a pan and eat it with laughter around a table with your friends as you look into one another\u2019s eyes and give no thought at all to the whole brutal affair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Too much said, I know, but sometimes the words just fall out of my mouth before I can stop them.<\/p>\n
Once a man came to my house to make a repair. He commented: \u201cIt\u2019s weird to come into a house that doesn\u2019t have a TV on in the background that I have to talk over. It seems oddly quiet in here.\u201d I thought to myself, \u201cHuh. Are we at a place where it\u2019s just \u2018normal\u2019 to live with a constant backdrop of TV murder, lust, profanity and deceit, and it\u2019s weird to have a quiet atmosphere where conversations between the inhabitants can occur?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not picking on TV or on the barbaric dietary plan most of the world regards as \u201cnormal.\u201d Those are just a couple of ready examples that serve to point out how oddly abnormal the \u201cnormal\u201d state of man happens to be.<\/p>\n
From all appearances, it\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d to make the promise, \u201ctill death do us part,\u201d and then walk away when \u201cI\u2019m done\u201d or when someone more \u201cfor me\u201d comes along. It\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d to objectify and exploit female sexuality and call it \u201cbusiness\u201d or \u201cadvertising\u201d or \u201centertainment.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d to massacre millions of living fetuses in the womb and call it \u201cpro-choice,\u201d or worse yet, \u201cfamily planning.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d to create chemical concoctions that destroy health and call it \u201cfood.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d to hoard obscene amounts of money in banks while tens of thousands of children drop dead of starvation each day and call it \u201csuccess.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet the truth is, all of this supposed normality is insane and evil by any rational assessment.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got three points I\u2019d like to offer about being \u201cnormal\u201d and not being \u201cweird.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNormal\u201d is one of those shifting human concepts that elude stability, like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Who defines it? By what criterion do we measure it? And once \u201cnormal\u201d is defined in any given culture or clique of human weirdoes, you won\u2019t have to wait very long before it changes. \u201cNormal\u201d moves like the wind. You\u2019ll never be able to keep in sync with the world\u2019s ever-changing view of normality, coolness, beauty or success, nor should you even care to.<\/p>\n
So stop trying.<\/p>\n
The whole psycho edifice is sick and \u201cpassing away\u201d (1 Corinthians 7:31, NKJV).\u00a0\u201cDeal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out\u201d (1 Corinthians 7:31, The Message).<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to suggest that the only \u201cnormal\u201d worth pursuing has nothing to do with \u201csameness\u201d or \u201cculture\u201d or whatever \u201cfashion\u201d or \u201cfad\u201d the advertising agencies happen to be pushing at any given moment. To the contrary, being a \u201cnormal\u201d human, as humans were meant to be, has everything to do with being totally \u201cabnormal\u201d compared to the standard of normality our sick world projects through its various media outlets. Look right past all of it and live with an entirely different orientation.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God\u201d (Romans 12:2).<\/p>\n
Ask yourself, Is Paul exaggerating when he says,\u201cOf Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen\u201d (Romans 11:36)? Another translation more lucidly renders the text, \u201cAll things find in Him their origin, their impulse, the center of their being\u201d (Knox). Paul\u2019s words only seem an exaggeration because we are so far removed from the natural state in which God originally created us.<\/p>\n
Scripture knows nothing of life having any component that occurs without reference to God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In actuality, only when we are completely immersed in, devoted to and consciously acting toward God, are we exercising our humanity with normality. We could say, using the modern vernacular, that anyone who is not totally \u201csold out\u201d to God is \u201cweird.\u201d The problem is, our true identity as human beings is so foreign to our very selves that we consider anyone who is totally into God as weird, extreme or fanatical.<\/p>\n
But the truth is, human life is essentially and necessarily spiritual.<\/p>\n
It is, therefore, \u201cnormal\u201d to be spiritually alive, focused and motivated, and abnormal to be anything less that totally on fire for God.<\/p>\n
We were designed and created to be habitable temples for the indwelling of the living God (Ephesians 2:21-22), to be \u201cfilled with all the fullness of God\u201d (Ephesians 3:19). And yet, it has become popular to think of life as having a spiritual \u201cpart\u201d distinct from the other aspects of life that are secular. The word \u201csecular\u201d means, \u201cnot religious or spiritual in nature; not concerned with spiritual matters\u201d (Encarta World Dictionary). People speak in terms of their \u201cspiritual life\u201d as if it were in some sense distinct from their \u201cprofessional life,\u201d their \u201cfamily life,\u201d their \u201csocial life,\u201d their \u201csecular life.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the distinction between spiritual and secular does not actually exist. It is an invention of the fallen human mind designed to evade God\u2019s presence in everyday life. In fact, there is no word in the Bible for \u201csecular.\u201d Scripture knows nothing of life having any component that occurs without reference to God. Every aspect of life is concerned with spiritual matters, because we are spiritual beings by definition. We are always in either a positive or a negative spiritual state.<\/p>\n
So don\u2019t think of your relationship with God as one part of your life. Rather, think of your life as completely spiritual. Do all that you do\u2014job, educational pursuits, relationships, life-goals, recreation\u2014within the spiritual framework.\u00a0\u201cWhatever you do, do all to the glory of God\u201d (1 Corinthians 10:31).<\/p>\n
Which brings us to our final and most ontological point.<\/p>\n
3. Self-giving love is the only \u201cnormality\u201d worth pursuing.<\/h2>\n
Our native state, pre-Fall, was one of complete other-centeredness. The human heart was made to move outward every moment of every day in vertical and horizontal deeds of selfless love.<\/p>\n
Never inward.<\/p>\n
Always outward.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him\u201d (1 John 4:16, NIV).<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what it really means to be human, and therefore \u201cnormal.\u201d To the degree that we forget ourselves and live for the well-being of others and for the pleasure of God, we are \u201cnon-weird\u201d by heaven\u2019s standard.<\/p>\n
Anyone who is not totally \u201csold out\u201d to God is \u201cweird.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Everything we do is in favor of one or the other of two antagonistic principles: either selfishness or love. Paul summarizes the fallen state of humans with the word \u201cself-seeking\u201d and he informs us that \u201cin the last days… men will be lovers of themselves\u201d on a descending scale that becomes \u201cworse and worse\u201d (Romans 2:8; 2 Timothy 3:1-2, 13). That\u2019s our world, and it\u2019s not \u201cnormal,\u201d except in the sense that we\u2019re used to it. God fashioned humanity in His image (Genesis 1:27), to love like He loves (1 Corinthians 13). To live in God\u2019s love is the one and only rational and sustainable mode of living there is. Its violation is the source of every wickedness and every hurt that plagues the world. When we receive Jesus as our Savior, He immediately engages in the transforming work of restoring His self-giving love to hearts and lives. In other words, He restores us to our normal state as God\u2019s image-bearers. From that moment forward, every decision we make that reflects His love contributes to the normalizing of our humanity.<\/p>\n
So this message is simply an invitation\u2014no, an admonition\u2014to be normal. That is, to throw off this world\u2019s pressures to fit in and embrace your true identity as a child of God whose whole life is meant to be a reflection of His amazing love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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