What is normal

Have you ever sat and pondered normal? Asked yourself what is the best way to co-exist in a world that is full of strife, anger, sexual immorality? To unravel this question, it seems the first place to start is to ask, what is normal? Normal to you may not be normal to me or to anyone else. So it seems like trying to live our lives according to what others believe and think is more abnormal than normal.

Let's face it, we live in a world of expectations. People expect us to wear clothes. Go to work, provide for ourselves and our family. People expect us to act civil. To not be violent, to be kind and helpful, to not steal. Society even sets up enforcement procedures (called police) to make sure we conform. Yet have you ever asked yourself the question, where did all these expectations come from?

It seems to me we all face choices everyday. We can either get up or stay in bed. Work or loaf. Love or hate. Steal or work. The list is long and may have gradations of gray, but for the most part there are only two choices. Right and wrong. We live our lives making those choices every day, every hour, every minute. The closer you come to making the same choices I would make, the more normal you will appear to me. But you may seem abnormal to someone else. Someone who would consistently make opposite choices. It is all very confusing.

So where do we get these norms? What is considered normal? How should we behave so we can coexist peacefully together? This thinking is often referred to as worldviews. What kind of a worldview have you developed? My worldview has been formed by the Bible. After having lived a life of inconsistent choices, I was led to read the Bible. And when I read it, I discovered that the norms for behavior made evident in the Bible made sense to me.

The Bible exhorted me to love God and to love others the same way I love myself. It then goes on to explain what love is. To be kind, humble, helpful, empathetic, caring. Love is never boastful. It is peaceful, patient, joyful, gentle, good. We are to have self control. We are to be slow to anger. The list is long but doable. We are not to be arrogant or rude. Resentful, irritable, insisting on our own way. We are to bear all things, endure all things, to have another's best interest at heart at all times. It is a book about how to live with others.

At the same time, the Bible gives a list of things that don't work, being sexually immoral, impure, sensual, idolatrous, a mystic or sorcerer. We are not to be at enmity with others, causing strife, prone to jealousy, showing fits of anger, inducing rivalries, causing dissension, divisions. Being envious does not work, a drunkard. We are not to participate in orgies, and things like these. This list is of aberrant behaviors is not consistent with a Biblical world view.

The Bible also talks about being a good citizen and how important it is to obey the laws of the land, even if you don't agree with them. And to obey to the extent you are not forced to do things that are totally against the law of God.

All to say, the Bible defines a standard of normalcy that is pleasing to God. They are expectations of what it means to be pure, wholesome, loving. The Bible is a guide to behaviors that will lead to peace and joy in this life. Who would not want to engage socially with someone who is kind, generous, joyful, etc. As opposed to one who is rude, willful, envious, jealous, ribald, etc.

What has happened though, and here is the problem. People try to pick and choose from the two lists. Some people believe they can live with one foot in the sinful world and live with their other foot in the spiritual world. This causes great anxiety and dysfunction. It leads to guilt, anger, depression and to the many behaviors which cause tragedy in life. The Bible says you cannot serve two masters. You must choose whom you will serve.

Further still, there are those who when confronted with the clear distinction, choice if you will, between the two worlds, they become convicted of their behaviors. They see they are falling short and then become angry with the messenger. They become defenders of their behaviors and strive to bring others to their same point of view, all in name of what they call tolerance. But if you hold to a Biblical worldview you are intolerant of others. In reality, the opposite is true. The Biblical worldview seeks to reconcile the sinful world to God and to His standard of behavior. It never condemns the behaviors of others as much as points out how that behavior will lead to an unhappy and unproductive life. A life that is not Biblical is destined for heartache and despair. The Biblical worldview points out that those nonbiblical behaviors are inconsistent with what God taught is the standard and is the key to a joyful life.

The standard is intolerant. But adherents to the Biblical worldview, believers, are to be loving, caring and compassionate. Looking to draw those who are slaves to the sinful worldview in to the world of Biblical standards.

And so the battlelines are clearly drawn. Not between flesh and blood. The battle is not between people. It is between standards. The sinful world wants to denigrate and devalue and demean the Biblical standard because they feel condemned in their own heart. Not because of anything that was necessarily said to them, but because they know they fall short of the standard and it makes them mad. So they attack those who uphold the standard and try to make them feel wrong, foolish and unwise.

The Bible calls ALL to repentance. Calls all to turn away from the sin of this world and towards the standard God says will lead to a joyful, abundant life. God did not give this standard because it will hurt us. He gave it because He loves us and wants us to life a joyful abundant life. A life that is full of love, peace and blessings. Not necessarily without pain and sorrow, but one that is consistent with the teachings of scripture. The standard God established before the foundation of the world is the way to live here on earth.

What is normal? Normal is living by the standard God set before us as the ways of God. Abnormal is rejecting those standards and trying to make up our own set of standards, based on the wickedness that exists in every heart. As for me and my house, we choose the way of the Lord.