The Trouble With Normal
I’m not a fan of what our, or any, society counts as normal. I’m certainly not a fan of what is, at the moment, referred to as the “new normal.” We need something more than normal in its current state.
Webster defines normal for us in terms of, “conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern.” Therein lies my problem with societal norms. It’s not that I’m opposed to conforming, but we have to conform to the right things. The apostle Paul instructs us not to, “conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
The problem with societal norms is that they are almost always skewed, they don’t meet the criteria established by God of what human relationships and cultures are supposed to look like. I’m not interested in arguing the semantics here that the patterned behaviors of a society are normal for them and therefore the word is used correctly. I’m smart enough to understand that. My point is simply that societal norms don’t measure up to God’s expectations for us and since we are all created in the image of God anything we would call normal that fails to meet God’s expectations is, in fact, abnormal.
In the title track of his 1983 album, The Trouble With Normal, Bruce Cockburn breaks down some of the issues with society’s normal. After pointing out how many societal norms actually reflect gross injustice and inequity he provides us with the timely reminder of the fallacy that “‘It'll all go back to normal if we put our nation first’" before telling us that when it comes to societal norms, “The trouble with normal is it always gets worse.”
If we really want normal. That is, if we really want proper guiding norms for our life, then we need to look beyond the present moment. We need to look beyond nationalism, “if we put our nation first,” and the broken ideologies of this world, and all those ideologies are broken. We need to look again to the God who came to us in Jesus. We need to be driven by the two greatest commandments as Jesus stated them, because then, and only then, will we truly find our proper place in the world.
If you want normal then learn to “love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Then, “love your neighbour as yourself.” For Jesus tells us the second commandment is like the first. Yep, you can’t claim to love God if you don’t love your neighbour.
These two go hand in hand. We have to understand how much God loved this world. We need to grasp how God pursued humanity even while we sought to rebel against God. We need to appreciate how God came to us in Jesus, dying on the cross for sin, rising victorious over death, and extending grace and forgiveness to all who would call on his name. If we fail to love God for all God has done for us, we will ultimately be unable to properly love other people.
The degree to which we fail to demonstrate our love for God and all that God has done for the world will limit our ability to fully embrace the second commandment of loving our neighbour.
Yes, we need a new normal. One in which we love both God and neighbour. This new normal will see a redeemed humanity living from a new perspective, guided by a profound love for God that spills over to love all people because God loves all people. This new way of living will see the people embracing it inviting the lost, the broken, the hurting, the sinful, to find their own redemption in Jesus Christ and become part of God’s movement in the world today.
So yes, let’s move to a new normal, the true normal, the place where love of God and love of neighbor come together.
