The Lie of Normalcy
Most of us, it seems, have wondered somewhere deep down
inside if we are normal. We have bought
into a lie that says we must look, dress, act, and think a certain way, or we
are somehow fatally flawed – “ABNORMAL.”
It has a pretty scary ring to it doesn’t it?
But here’s the thing, “normal” is simply viewing people from
35,000 feet in the air.
Think about the last time you flew in an airplane. If you
looked out the window, you could see trees, houses, lakes, mountains - but they
all look pretty much the same. That’s how people look, too, when we don’t get
close enough to appreciate the detail.
“Normal” is a pair of glasses that allows us to lump people
together based on certain characteristics – because, let’s face it, there is
nothing we love better than to sort people into ‘us’ and ‘them’. We will sort
people based on race, gender, hair color, fitness level, education level,
religion, where they went to school….you name it. We stereotype and
discriminate (if only within our own mind) based on what we have in common, or
don’t have in common, with everyone we meet.
Somehow we have bought into a lie that if we group people
together in some way, it will help us understand them. We think that we know
something about them because they are like us in some small way. Or perhaps we
think we know something about them because they are like ‘them’ in some small
way.
The reality is just the opposite. When we glump people together
based on one characteristic, regardless of what the characteristic is, we are
removing ourselves to a distance where we can’t possibly understand them at
all. We see them as we might see a field of wildflowers – a vast sea of color –
rather than as an individual created uniquely in the image of the Creator.
There is more to people than that one characteristic! Each
of the millions of characteristics we have, the experiences we’ve lived, the
DNA God created us with – all of this combines to form a perfectly unique
person unlike any other who has ever lived.
Like a key in a lock, God created those unique
characteristics to achieve a unique purpose. A purpose that no other person who
has ever lived could achieve. Imagine a ‘normal’ key – one that is
indistinguishable from a million other keys – would it fit the same lock? Of
course not.
Enjoy the unique way that God created you. Seek to discover
and work to achieve the unique purpose He has for your life. Take the time to
get up close and see other people’s uniqueness. Learn to appreciate the
unique facets of their character and seek to encourage them in the purpose to
which He has called them.
YBNRML?
