Everybody is talking about “the new normal”. What if I told you that you can help decide what that “new normal” will be? Are you willing and ready to take on that responsibility?
I have a feeling that one of the top buzz words or sayings for the year 2021 is going to be “new normal”. I will just go ahead and say that will be the case. At the end of this year you will have heard the term “new normal” so many times that the phrase itself will be part of your normal vocabulary. I am either predicting the future or speaking something into truth if that makes sense. We can tell ourselves and others what the future will hold. Our words today can be followed up by actions that will put in place almost anything we want. I can tell the world that the “new normal” for me will be that I will walk 2 miles every day. Normally I do not do that but if I want it to happen, I just proclaim it to be and then take action to make it happen. I can establish a new normal. Others can guide what we perceive to be normal as well.
The definition of normal is conforming to a standard or pattern to be expected. The more times you hear society tell you something is expected or okay, the more normal that behavior becomes. Overtime the behavior or thought that used to be different becomes part of your everyday experience and therefore it becomes normal. I remember vividly looking at an advertisement of this cool car when I was a young boy. I do not remember the details of the car, but I remember the ad telling me “this was going to be the car of the future”. My immediate thought was “yes it will be because you, the car company, are telling me what kind of cars you will be selling someday.” I learned very little about a car that day and a lot about how others can persuade future behaviors. Throughout history people have promoted ideological philosophies, political agendas, religious beliefs, and more. Those people employ a variety of methods to persuade others that their belief is the best and work to implement those beliefs into society with hope that they can establish a new normal. Over the past fifteen months alone our society has been persuaded to accept some behaviors as a new normal as well. It is up to us to as individuals to analyze everything that society calls normal and determine if it lines up with our own personal beliefs. Not everything that has been established as normal is good!
Think back about 2000 years ago. A man from Nazareth entered the town of Jericho. He saw a man named Zacchaeus, who was a tax collector, and asked to go stay at his house. The townspeople gasped in disgust because it was not normal to stay as the guest of sinners (Luke 19:1-10). This same man had actually touched a contagious leper before too (Luke 5:12-16). Nobody does that sort of thing! This man named Jesus came to earth to break the cycle of societal norms we had given in to. On our own we cannot stand up against a society driven by sin. So, He came to teach us how to live in such a world and then He died so that we can overcome death and live eternally in Heaven. That was not normal! My prayer for us today is that we stop and remember Jesus. His words are written down in the Bible to guide us every single day. When we accept Him as our Savior, we take on a new normal life. A new life that loves differently, speaks differently, acts differently, and looks differently. Living like Jesus is normal in His eyes, but it is not normal in the eyes of our world. By living out His word and sharing it with others, my hope is that we can establish a new normal in this world! It will not be easy, but it will be good!
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