Normal?

Since my surgery, I’ve been waiting for life to get back to normal, not always patiently. About 10 weeks after surgery, my body still doesn’t have as much strength or endurance as it did before surgery. There are also issues I deal with related to the removal of a couple of organs that cause frustration. I find myself thinking things like, “My body should be doing better than this.”

Then a couple of days ago a post showed up on my Facebook feed. I’ve gone back and tried to find it, but I can’t. So, I can’t credit the poster or even quote it exactly, but it went something like this: There is no such thing as “normal,” this is life. Get on with it.

The last few years (since COVID) many have been wanting life to get back to normal. Of course, we’ve also heard some say this IS the new normal. I remember, years ago, reading that normal is just a setting on your dryer.

How much time do we waste waiting for normal, or maybe waiting for some other set of circumstances to occur? How many decisions or actions do we delay? How many opportunities do we pass up?

The only normal we can count on is we are broken people living and interacting with other broken people in a broken world. It’s been that way since Adam and Eve at the forbidden fruit back in the Garden. It will be that way until Jesus returns. I think that qualifies as normal.

With all that brokenness, things are rarely going to be ideal for anything we want to do. We are never going to be able to produce the flawless product we would like to. We can’t even trust our own perception of what “flawless” or “perfect” or “normal” might be.

So what do we do?

We get on with life. We do the best we can as parents, siblings, neighbors, employees, etc. as we can, remembering it’s never going to be as good as we’d like it to be. We love our kids, our families, our neighbors, and even our enemies, even though we know we can’t do it perfectly. We do our best to serve our Lord with the understanding that He is a Father who is well aware of His children’s flaws and failings and still loves us better than we can love ourselves.

That’s not the answer many would want, but it’s the best I can provide. That may be because I’m a flawed, broken human being or it may be a better answer doesn’t exist this side of Jesus’ return. But when He does return, it won’t just be possible to do things perfectly, we will be made perfect in Him.