The Danger of Normal

During the drive did you pass someone on the side of the road changing a tire or miss the sight of children playing in a field. Maybe the shop that you always drive past has put up an Annual 50% Off Sale sign.

Opportunities were missed because of functioning in "normal."

What about the times that you are driving in autopilot and you suddenly run over debris on the road? Or you don't notice traffic stopping ahead and you have to slam on the brakes....worse yet you rear-end the car in front of you.

Sometimes normal can be a distraction from obstacles in the road...things go unnoticed.

Our lives can start to function like driving a car on autopilot. We become so immersed and comfortable in our "normal" that we miss opportunities and we don't notice obstacles that arise. We can get so focused on what is going on in our own lives and our little world that we forget there is a bigger picture, a bigger world. And that bigger world is made up of people that are crying out for help....and we can't hear them because we don't notice them.

We go throughout our day, our routine, our normal, and we get distracted by the lists in our heads. Lists of things we need to do, things we need to buy, things we need to remember. These things all revolve around "we." Because in normal our world revolves around "me."

Many times these are good things! We plan activities for our churches, buy groceries for our families, and remember things we need to do for our health. But we get so caught up in our world and in our normal that we don't notice the abnormal until it is so big and so different and sometimes so horrible that we have to slam on our brakes.

Why is it that we have to see appalling pictures of ISIS killing people before we pray for those that are persecuted? 

Why is it that we have to watch a disgusting, racist video of before we cry out to God with a heart softened to injustice?

Why? 

It's because we are so caught up in our normal that we walk right past pain.

The world is hurting and crying out for help.

We know that politics can't heal what is broken and we know that humanitarian aid can only help so much.

The one, true fix is the love of a Father who sent His son to take on the burden and consequence of our sin. He did this so that through Jesus, we might have a relationship with the Father, know Him, and be saved from the hopelessness that fills this life and a hopeless eternity without Him.

Friend, I pray that you know the hope that supersedes the pain of this life.

But we should also be very aware that we are not saved by grace so that we can lead a normal life and make it safely to our destination.

We are saved so that we can go out to the world and share that hope, love and grace with others! 

Normal is my enemy! I fight normal every day, because it is so, so easy for me to slip into it. Normal is comfortable. But normal keeps me from seeing people. 

And when I don't see people, I don't love people. 

And when I don't love people, I don't reach out to people. 

And when I don't reach out to people, I take what my Father gave me and I bury it into the ground for safekeeping until His arrival. 

And when I bury it in the ground, what type of greeting will He give me on His return?........

"... 'Well done, good and faithful servant!"

or......

"... throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." - Matthew 25:14-30
 
Normal is dangerous.