What is spiritually fit normal?   Is there really such a thing?  I think Alicia Silverstone, in the movie Clueless, best articulates it by saying… “As If”!!!   Recently, a friend and I were having a conversation about wanting the best for our children when she commented (as a single mom), “I just wish they could have a normal life.” I totally understood what she meant, but it got me thinking…  What is normal?   

According to the report, Feeling the Heat: “Global Warming and Rising Temperatures in the United States”, the average low temperature in Las Vegas in 2006 was 2.8 degrees above normal and 4.8 degrees above normal in the summer of that year.  In 2008, the normal temperature broke the previous record set in 2006. (1) So what then is ‘normal’?  Are we talking about ‘normal’ prior to 2006, or after? 

So, why in the world do we attempt to define a standard normalcy for families?   Unless, of course, you are operating from ‘Cleaver Sociology’ : 2.5 kids (the .5 must be factoring the ‘normal’ weight gain after giving birth), one dog (probably not a pit-bull), a white picket fence (hopefully not too near the California fires), dinner on the table (not bags decorated with golden arches)   the husband arrives home right on time at exactly 5 p.m., kids happily eat their vegetables, wife decked out in pearls, heals and a dress, full make-up and perfect hair (not sweats and a baseball cap) and her husband warmly greets her with a kiss accompanied by flowers.  Dinner is followed by dad playing ball with his son in the front yard while mom and daughter happily knit.  What was that again Alicia?  That’s what I was thinking too!  AS  IFFFFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Clearly, we can’t begin to stereo-type a cumulative ‘normal’ for family life, nor would it make sense to even compare our own circumstances with anothers.   

I will never forget when Jac had a grand mal seizure and we called  911.  Later, riding in the ambulance to the hospital, the paramedic commented, “I don’t think I have ever seen a family respond so calmly under these circumstances - I guess this is pretty normal for y’all.”   Although I don’t know if I could ever constitute my child convulsing with a seizure ‘normal’, I did realize there was some truth to what he pointed out.  Although always scary, this was not that abnormal for our family.   We all have our own reality of ‘normal’ thus there is never a need to compare.  We all have our own set of circumstances, none identical to anothers, thus it frees us from the temptation to judge.  Instead, we have the opportunity to be filled with compassion and reach out in service supporting one another.   

Maybe ‘normal’ is over-rated anyway.  A child born with special needs is categorized as ‘not-normal’, but we happen to know one who is a saint- that might not be normal, but it sure is cool!   Other examples of the awesomeness of ‘not-normal’ include; a man walking on water demonstrating faith and another man who lost his job, giving to the homeless in charity; A woman saying ‘yes’ to God resulting in a miraculous birth;  and another woman’s unplanned pregnancy resulting in an answer to prayer for a couple waiting to adopt.  A man healing a hemorrhaging woman upon her touch; and another holding his wife’s hand throughout her journey with breast cancer;  a 4 foot senior citizen  living in a poverty stricken 3^rd world country cleaning the oozing sores of lepers, and  a single mom changing diapers, making dinner, driving carpool, paying bills, cleaning house, giving breathing treatments and rocking her children to sleep at night;  The death penalty given to an innocent man resulting in his resurrecting from the dead, and the death of a hunched over aged balding man bringing together every religion in the known world for his funeral.  Not-normal can often be holy opportunities for extraordinary expressions of love.   

So the question no longer has to be ‘what is normal?’, and ‘how do I attain it?,  but rather,  ‘how can I make holy my current circumstances whether it be poverty, loneliness, uncertainty, illness, unemployment, disease, grief, or pain -normal or otherwise.  My favorite quote is by Meister Eckhart:  

“It is not what we do that makes us holy. We make holy what we do.”   

I pray that today you experience holiness in your own version of ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’, and throughout you are able to embrace God’s grace-filled presence and all encompassing love.  Your life is holy - because you are holy!   

Together in His Love, Tammy 

References: 1. http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/07/26/news/shrapnel/iq_15684520.prt2. http://neondesert.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/123-WARMEST-METEOROLOGICAL-SUMMER-ON-RECORD-AT-LAS-VEGAS.html3. http://www.alaska.com/about/weather/story/4481284p-4460281c.html

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