What is Normal and do I want to be it?

Journal Entries:

Thursday, November 20-26, 2003

In reading over the entries from these days I was struck by how “normal” my life was.  Work, home, counseling, shopping for birthday presents for friends, chores, worship, activities with friends, choir, paying bills, grocery store, and so on.  Only one day did I mention that I had a “sad day”.  Every other day was “good day” or “wonderful day”.  Not one mention of the word “fear”!  Praise God!

After having lived with that underlying sense of fear for so many years I love recalling these first experiences of days without fear.  Tomorrow I’ll write more about the sad day but for now I want to focus on “normal”. 

What do I mean by normal?  I can assure that if you talk to my kids, my sister or brother, my nieces and nephews, and my friends, not a one will say I’m normal.  I’m not even sure what normal is.  And I certainly don’t want to be normal but more about that in a minute.  The normal I’m talking about here is a day without fear.  A day doing things an adult does on any given day.  A day where the sweet and good moments are not tinged with the thought that I might do something wrong and get into trouble.  A day when I’m in charge of myself.  It’s so freeing.  These days meant so much to me because they signified what God was doing in my life.  They were signs of progress and gave me hope for the future.  I’m so thankful for the record of these normal days.

Now as far as being normal I don’t believe there is any such person.  We were all created in the image of God and He certainly isn’t normal.  He created each of us to be unique representations of Him in His world.  Sin messed this up but He sent His Son Jesus Christ to live as an example, to die for my sins, and to rise from the grave to bring me eternal life.  When I believe, accept, and place my faith in Him he makes me wonderfully unique.  Our uniqueness becomes something wonderful when we allow Jesus to take over our lives and magnify the gifts given to us by our Creator. 

God’s word tells me that my uniqueness comes in the gifts and talents He placed in my before I was in the womb. 

He created me for a purpose and He did the same for you.  We find that purpose and our own distinctive personality in Jesus and our service to His Kingdom.

I know and love many wonderful people and I wouldn’t say that even one of them is normal.  We are all special in ways that only be described as God given gifts.  So embrace the wonderful you God saw before He formed you in your mother’s womb.  Embrace the amazing you Jesus inspired when He entered your life.  And if you don’t know Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Friend seek Him today.  He will be found. He will deliver you from the cocoon of fear or doubt or whatever it is that has you bound today.  I know because He surely allowed me to break free from fear and to soar like a butterfly!

Remember:

Father,

Thank You that I am not normal but I am made in Your image.

Thank You for Jesus who restored my purpose through His life, death, and resurrection.

Thank You for enabling me to break free from the cocoon that confined my life.

Keep me soaring for Your kingdom.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen