The New Normal

Pam and I were talking yesterday and we finally think we have something figured out. Living in a day and time where there is not such a clear cut and dry standard for what shapes how we live our lives or what shapes a society, the natural result is that everyone is free to do whatever they want. After all, my life is my life and I should not be told what to do as I live it and I should be free to make decisions regardless of what others really think about me. "I am you know, the center of the universe" - so we often think and live. Call it postmodernism or me-centered living, but it has definitely become the mainstream and the NORM.

There was a time in our society in the not too distant past where this life view was considered foreign. Yes, one could argue that life in the 1940's and 50's was a bit stuffy, etc., but one can also not deny that children and communities had a much better understanding on how to love and care for one another than we do now. There were also life and behavior standards that communities and society at large considered NORMAL. Those certain ideals shaped family, church, government and community life and honestly, gone are those days. The days of respect and mutual accountability to certain standards that were acceptable before no longer really exist. There was, even with the flaws of that generation, something NORMAL to their existence. And if you did not live by those standards, then one was seen outside the NORM and excluded from the group. Certain important ideals were embraced and we have lost those today.

The new normal is now this: Everyone is Normal. Everyone who lives gets to be considered the NORMAL and the new NORM is whatever you may want to do. No matter the choices one makes, no matter the value system one holds, no matter who you may affect - we all have the right to do as we please because what we do is normal. Everyone gets included in the NORM because everything is normal. Obviously I am not talking about breaking the law, as that still carries a penalty, but I am referring to how we talk and treat police officers, teachers, parents, neighbors, coaches, family, and etc. The new NORMAL gives us the right to say and do whatever we feel is right to them and anyone else who may get in our way. These questions must be asked: How is this working for our society? Are we friendlier and more joyful than the previous generations? Have we moved into a higher plane of respect and honor for others? Of course not!! Everyone being NORMAL is not a good thing and our current culture is proof. Accepting and placing anyone and everyone under the NORMAL banner is scary!

I don't like the new NORMAL, in how I live it out at times and how people treat me because they are infected by it. Somehow I don't see that the new NORM has made us more content or loving. We are worse off than ever. Some abnormalcy to the NORM is in order. Anyone want to join me? Maybe we could form a support group called the ABNORMALS.

Let's keep in mind these words of Jesus in John 15:19 - "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you". Let us live in such a way that the world's NORMAL does not get our NORMAL and in so doing we find we are living for the glory of Christ.

Are you normal or abnormal?