The older I get, the more firmly I believe normal to be nonsense. It’s just plain Jabberwocky! You know, “’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe,” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. What society deems normal makes about as much sense as the words of that famous poem; yet we strive so hard to fit the standard.
I have a confession. It’s one that does not fall easily from my lips. In fact, it kind of makes me a little nauseous letting you in on this great secret, but here it is: I AM NOT PERFECT. I’m not even normal! Honestly, I’m a mess. The world tells me imperfection is not normal. Normal tells me not to tell you this. Normal tells me to tuck this secret away and paint for you instead a pretty picture. Normal wants you to think I have it all together, that I know what I’m doing, that I am strong.
But here’s another secret: Normal is imaginary. It’s intangible and therefore unattainable. I have struggled greatly with this truth. I have fought it. I have fought myself trying to get normal in my grasp. I have fought God over control of my life, because He won’t let me attain normal. At times it has seemed just when normal was in reach, the Lord shook my unstable ground and took away what I thought I so badly wanted. Isn’t that silly? I trusted Him with my eternal salvation but not with this temporal station.
I make mistakes. I make bad choices. I say stupid things. I second guess myself. I second guess you. I judge. I trip. I stumble. I fall.
Moms, I want you to hang on to what is real. It is in your weakness that the Lord’s power is made perfect. It’s not in your own perfection that He does anything. Quite the contrary. “In weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties…” this is where you find strength, for God’s grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:10).
If you are honest, you will admit that like me, you are not perfect. You make mistakes. You make bad choices. You say stupid things. You second guess yourself. You second guess me. You judge. You trip. You stumble. You fall. You will not be perfect by any act of your own. You will likely never be normal. But that’s no reason to hide! The apostle Paul “boast[ed] all the more gladly” about his weaknesses—he refused to be normal—so God’s power would rest on him.
Refuse to be normal.
- Ch…ch…ch…CHANGES Are Coming in 2017 for TMI - December 27, 2016
- What New Thing Are You Ready to See God Do in Your Life in 2017? - December 26, 2016
- Heaviness and Newness - December 23, 2016
