Is there really such thing as normal? What is it?
At the moment it feels like my life is upside down.
Wait a minute I've had this feeling ever since January.
Maybe what I'm in the midst of right now is in fact normal. Maybe this is actually the way things are supposed to be. Am I supposed to be used to disappointment and grief and conflict and being tired!?!
It feels like traumatic event, after traumatic event keeps happening in my life; that there is no smooth sailing. Yet, I know that it could always be worse.
And at the same time...there are those moments of complete joy when the sun seems to poke through the rain clouds.
The crazy thing is that I'm one to be optimistic, who sees the cup as half full. And it is half full...right?
I'm getting used to this craziness. But not too used to it, b/c I doubt that the surprizes thrown at me will ever be comfortable.
The greatest part of it all as that through whatever happens God continually shows His faithfulness. And although my life hasn't been as traumatic as Paul's I feel as though his words in 2 Corinthians can be said of my life now too:
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the most gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:9-10)
So, I suppose life is actually really good
and possibly
even
normal.
2 comments:
Thanks for the thoughts C.J,
One thing Candace and I were talking about lately is how as humans we have the tendency to look to the future and not concentrate on the future.
For example it's easy for me to get caught up in January, or for her Sierra Leone. But this distracts us from the gift that is the present.
I wonder if part of our striving for "normal" is a variation of longing for something new and better. It's a striving to get out of this "traumatic upside down life" and into something "better". But by looking forward to that time we miss the "moments of complete joy" now.
Either way I think that the trick of the devil is to prevent us from keeping our mind on the present but to always look to the future, which is always better, but never good enough.
Of course I could be all wrong... I did have left over pizza today.
Thoughts?
~Dave
Hey Dave,
I sometimes feel as though situations that I'm currently in overpower me from even looking to the future. As much as I seem to wish things were "normal", it's almost as though I'm so consumed with what's happening right now that I'm not even looking or waiting for that day a few months from except in the case of my wedding).
I think there's a healthy balance between both. It's good to be in the moment to enjoy and learn from all that's going on (though from the words of Bono "you stuck in a moment, and you can't get out of it"). But at the same time, it's healthy to have that expectation of what's coming.
That's kinda my train of thought at the moment...although who knows I did have two donuts for breakie :)
~cj
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