Normal

Who defines what is normal? Your family? Your culture? The TV? Internet?

Remembers the 90’s? During that decade it was normal to wear your pants backwards or wear overalls with only one strap done up. You could flip your sunglasses up and shave a line in your head. No one would look twice if you had a neon green shirt paired with neon orange pants. It was just normal.

Why is Coke black and Sprite clear? Just cause that’s normal.

Why are white shirts ok after labour day but not white pants?

Milk is the only beverage that comes in a bag.

Canadians boo at sports events when they are upset and Europeans whistle.

Ketchup is a flavour of chip.

All of these things are acceptable because people around us accept it is as good or right.

But think about some of the things we have at one time accepted as good and right

- Treating people with different colour skin or different belief systems as less than others.

- Physical abuse as punishment for children.

- If you wanted more land for your country or family, you simply had to overpower a neighbour.

- Problems on the other side of the world are not our concern.

I was reading this morning in the Life Journal readings about the family of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. It was “normal” in their family to lie, deceive or manipulate situations to make things work out for them. This was a family that was promised by God to be blessed beyond any other family in the history of the world, but they still did everything they could to deceitfully get ahead. It was just “normal” Abraham slept with his wife’s servant and lied to neighbours. Isaac lied to neighbours and named his son deceiver. Rebekah coerced her son to trick his father and Esau married his cousin to anger his father. Jacob told God he would obey him if God met his condition. Jacob’s sons sold their brother and then lied about his fate. But no one seemed to question why it was wrong. It was just normal.

It made me start to question if there was any “normal” things in my life that need to be re-evaluated.

Just because you’ve done it that way before doesn’t mean you need to keep on doing.

Don’t let your history, your peers or even your family tell you what is normal.

Make a decision to decide for yourself what is true what is right and good - that should be our normal.