I’m back! I’ve slacked off in the blogging department the
last couple of weeks.
So I’ve got some good news and some bad news…
The bad news is we only have three weeks of ministry left.
The good news is we still have three weeks of ministry left!
I feel like I’ve been in a time warp ever since I left the
U.S. It seems like I’ve been in India forever but the weeks are flying by! I’m
already dreading leaving and excited for it at the same time. How do you say
goodbye to people that have changed your life forever? How do I go back home a
completely different person and readjust to everything I once knew that now
seems so different? I guess that’s something I can look forward to learning.
Every week presents a new challenge for me that always
results in me realizing how stupid I still am… it’s ok, I can admit it. 🙂 Last
week was the challenge of being so physically and emotionally exhausted during
the day that I can’t even see straight, let alone try and break through the
language barrier to have a conversation with these people! Gosh, I was so
frustrated haha. Thank God I’ve been renewed in His strength and am ready to
chew on the new challenge I’ve faced this week: Being normal.
Wait, what? Why would I want to be normal? First of all, I’m
not good at it! Second of all, aren’t we supposed to stand out? Be different
than the rest of the world in order to spread light? True. But when God calls
me to be normal, He’s talking about being a normal Christian. Well what the
heck is that supposed to mean? I’ll try and explain what I’ve come to.
What would a normal Christian look like to you? Church on Sunday,
good morals according to the Bible, a few bucks to the homeless man, and prayer
meeting on Thursdays. Sounds good right? But in a world like ours, is it
“normal” to be so comfortable with our weekly “feel goods”? With the call of
the Great Commission on ALL of our lives, God is demanding we raise the bar,
rediscover the biblical norm, and redefine “normal” Christian behavior.
Watchman Nee observed that “we have seen the subnormal for so long that when we
see the normal we think it’s abnormal.” Is the calling God places on my life to
completely surrender my dreams, desires, and passions for the sake of His Name
abnormal or a calling I should be surprised by? That anyone who calls
themselves a Christian should be surprised by?
I’ll wrap it up with what David Shibley said in The
Missions Addiction on saying farewell to the balanced life: “The normal
Christian life is anything but balanced, as popularly defined. The normal
Christian life made Paul and Silas sing in prison and led faith-filled
believers to forego deliverance for a better resurrection. If we are “new
nature normal,” we love our enemies and pray for those who use us. Normal Christians
quickly forgive those who wrong them. They wake up in the middle of the night
heartbroken for people groups whose names they can barely pronounce. The normal
Christian life is high risk and high joy. The normal Christian life releases
the temporal to embrace the eternal. It is a life lived in the love of God.”
Farewell, balanced life. Hello normalcy.
