DTEB, “Normal? No Such Thing!”

I no longer believe in normal. Therefore, I have no desire to get back to it. In point of fact, normal never existed. What we call “normal” is usually just our faulty memory of the good bits and bobs that we think we experienced in the past.

Do you think I’m being pessimistic? It may sound so, I admit. However, I find this rejection of the fiction of normality as being positive and liberating. When I lust for normality, I tend to get up-tight, to worry, to overlook the joys of the moment.

Did you notice that yesterday was full of sunshine, and that it was unseasonably warm? It was a spring day in January. What a gift! Today is going to be a lot colder. So? The sun is still supposed to shine.

Have you noticed that on very cold nights, there are exquisite diamonds on the ground, sprinkled around by the extravagant anonymous Giver called Nighttime? They are gone in the morning, but man, are they ever lovely before they vanish!

Have you noticed that you can read this post? That you can read a book? Your Facebook friends’ posts? What is normal about reading, may I ask? You and I were not born knowing how to read.

Most of you can get out of bed, reach for a cup of coffee or a glass of water. What a privilege! But it isn’t normal.

Life and death are normal. They are also extraordinary blessings. Quite appropriately, I try to take good care of myself and others. I want to put off death as long as possible. That really is normal.

But death is normal too. And while I will be careful—for my own sake and the sake of others—I will choose not to fear death or the process of dying. Rumor has it that when I close my eyes in death, the next face I see will be the Face I’ve longed to see all my life: the Face of Jesus.

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