five minute friday: normal

How can there be a normal in the midst of an ever changing life? How can we find norm when everything keeps changing? These men-children keep growing and going. This man keeps graying, reminding me of my own roots. The bills ebb and flow and, by God's grace, the provision flows along with them.

In a season where all the world is pleading like beggars for normalcy, we are reminded there is no such thing.

Standing at the shore and watching the waves plummet the sand only to pull back again, I call to mind that normalcy of change. Maybe that in itself is our normalcy. Aren't we just fooling ourselves to think anything else will be the norm?

At that time, His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of things that are shaken-- that is things that have been made-- in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:26-29

The shaking of this world, the lack of sameness in our lives, the constant upheavals and trials that consume us stand as proof that the only normalcy is change. We think "when things get back to normal" and then quickly feel the weight of that lack of real normal. Just because restaurants open, schools are in session and jobs feel secure does not guard us from the next trial, the next hurricane, the next diagnosis, the next virus.

Jesus alone is the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever. He stands in sharp contrast to our ever changing, ever shifting sandy soil. He alone is the stability of our times, the Prophet Isaiah points out (33:6).

So while we look for a return to normal, maybe what we really long for is a return to the one who is the Unchanging Stability we truly long for. Take hold of Him and He will not let go.