WHY BE NORMAL? SPECIAL GUEST POST BY MARK TAYLOR

Last week Trevor challenged the church not to seek or settle for a “new normal” in how we do ministry. To his way of thinking, “normal” is not where the church belongs at all. Instead, like the growth of his teenage daughters, he says the church should “progress through one change after another in the coming years. . . . The goal is not to settle into normal, the goal is to progress through life.”

I keep coming back to those words. Does the notion of No New Normal really apply to everyday life? Does it work for me?

I hope so. I’m beginning to see how his insights can apply personally to my life—and maybe to some other readers of his blog as well. Trevor’s points from last week make a good outline for my thoughts, too.

 1. Normalcy Leads to Complacency

More than one preacher has reminded us that we tend to take God for granted when life seems normal: When everyone at home is healthy and the bank balances are large. When the job is secure and the kids are doing well. When our mother-in-law is being nice and the dog hasn’t run away. When the times are good, our prayers are less urgent. But when a crisis sends us to the hospital in the night or a new boss decides we’re not needed or the school counselor calls with some disturbing news, we run to God in prayer.

I’ve experienced that. I’ve cried out to God for help, only to reply with a few scant words of thanks when he meets my need. I’m trying these days to revise my approach to prayer, to begin with praise for all that God is and has done and then to thank him for “every good and perfect gift” I’ve received from his hand (see James 1:17). Then I move to requests for others—so many needs among friends whose health is bad, whose futures are uncertain, whose grief is heavy. It seems the more I pray, the more I have to pray about! All of that puts my own problems into perspective. They’re real, but I’m not alone. And I’m learning to see how God is blessing in spite of them, or sometimes because of them.

None of it is the normal I want. None of it gives me the leisure of complacency. All of it brings me closer to God and refines me for his purposes, and that leads to the next point.

2. Normalcy Hinders Progress

It is tempting to believe I could do so much more for God if I weren’t saddled with today’s difficulties. I once joked, “You know, I’ve told God I could be a really good rich person!”

One of my colleagues, older and wiser than I, said, “Well, God just must not be convinced yet!”

Nothing great for God happens without obstacles, conflict, setbacks, disappointment, or risk. Everyone trying to move forward has questions about where it’s all going or whether it will work. It’s true for every mother of a 12-year-old girl, every entrepreneur opening a new business, every father walking his daughter down the aisle, every employee deciding she must leave a dysfunctional workplace. Every crossroads in life leads us away from normal. We have the choice to keep walking, to keep trusting, to discover what God has in store around the next corner. But, “If we stay stuck on normal, we may miss the opportunities God has placed before us,” Trevor wrote. It’s as true for my little life as it is for the future of our church.

3. You Can’t Go Back

You may wish you didn’t have to send your child off to college. You may long for the energy you had 10 years ago. You may dislike your daily pile of pills required just to stay healthy. You may fear what your disease will bring next. You may regret bad decisions or wasted opportunities. You may hate your failures. You may struggle with the damage done to you by a poor parent or an unfaithful spouse.

But lingering in the shadows of the past only hides the light in your future. Psychologists tell us mourners must continue to wrestle through the phases of their grief, or they’ll stay stuck in a vortex that will drag them down forever.

The Lord’s brother, James, tells us to rejoice in our trials because of what they accomplish in us (James 1:2-4). Today’s problems are the seedbed for tomorrow’s progress. Today’s stress equips us to grow, mature, flourish. The only way to joy is to keep moving forward. The only path to peace is to discover the potential in what’s new.

Often it will not seem normal. And that’s good.

Mark Taylor is one of my favorite people to pontificate with, provoke church thought alongside of, ramble about musings and things we love, don’t love, and wished we could love, and one of my best friends. He is an amazing husband, father, friend, and most importantly…CHRIST FOLLOWER!!!