Are There No "Normal" People!
I get a frightening amount of spiritual fodder from comic strips. I suppose because in their use of humor they reveal the reality of the human condition and try to show us the silliness of most of what we do.
Pearls Before Swines
The inspiration for the comic strip title comes from the cynical character Rat who believes he is smarter than everyone else. So he gets frustrated when he casts his "pearls" of wisdom before the not so smart character Pig. A recent strip featured Rat correcting the noble and thoughtful character Goat. Goat notes that "he likes a particular politician and he seems like a normal guy". Rat quickly corrects him and notes that there are no normal people. He tells his friend to read his "Rat Maxim No. 9" which states:
There are only two kinds of people. Abnormal people and people you don't yet know well enough.
I laughed and thought of a quote I read recently.
"There are no together people. Just people with whiter teeth."
The point is that we all tend to put up "appearances" that make us look better to a watching world. But we really don't have it together but we love to fake it. Sadly, there are few places that this performance is truer than in the church. No one has their act together. All of us need to trust God to reflect our silliness back to us, take a good belly laugh at ourselves, and then help one another change. Without change you simply live as a fool.
We need to drop the masks and let trusted friends know that we need them. There is no shame in needing community to get through this journey. We all do. We are all abnormal (sinners) and none of us have it together in our own power.
Jesus excoriated the "religious" hypocrites who were all about appearance and self-efforting righteousness.
"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too." (Matthew 23, NLT)
The anger of Christ was not that the inside was filthy but that they refused to acknowledge that truth while putting on a self-righteous display of piety. Here is what I am figuring out. I can't clean the inside alone. I need to trust others to help me shine light in dark areas.
For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. (Ephesians 5, NLT)
I need to allow the Holy Spirit into every room. I need a community to encourage and walk with me. I need other believers in my life.
So here is my reality. I am abnormal. I don't have it together. I am prone to go into hiding and isolation. But I have Jesus. I have some really good friends who love me in spite of all of the junk that is true about me. And I have never been more alive and free as I live out my journey in grace.
“I am abnormal, too, and proud of it; I don’t have it together, not sure I want to, not sure I ever will until the instant I die, at which time I will be as Christ-like as I can become; I am prone to go into hiding and isolation — being my own worst enemy; but, thanks be to God, I, like you, have some really good friends, two really, really good friends, who like and love me in spite of all the junk that is true about me”; and above all, I, like you, have a God Who loves me and likes me and Who wants to grow me, making me more abnormal and as abnormal as His Son. Yes, abnormal like His Son; so He speaks to me through the light of His Word, the fire of His Holy Spirit, and the hearts of my ‘really good friends,’ who, like Jesus with His disciples, see in me potential and encourage me to develop it, as I am sure your friends, like Barnabus, see such potential present in you and encourage you to be the “butterfly not just the catepillar.”
What is “abnormal”?
I think it too simplistic to say that “abnormal is the opposite of normal.” I think “‘abnormal’ is not normal.” What is normal about a Revolutionary Who conquered the mightiest of enemies without an army? What is normal about a Ruler Whose Kingdom is not of this earth? What is normal about a King Whose companions were ordinary fishermen, tax collectors, and prostitutes? What is normal about One Who was scouraged and crucified while asking His Father “to forgive them, for they know not what they do” and teaching followers to “love your enemies…and turn the other cheek”?
What is change — not status quo?
What is uniqueness — not uniformity?
What is different — not ordinary?
What is seeing — not blindness?
What is light — not darkness?
What is abnormal — change, uniqueness, different, seeing, and light in a dark world?
Who is abnormal — Jesus?
What am I — abnormal — and proud of it — because the more abnormal I am, the more like Christ I am? I don’t want to follow the status quo or be ordinary or be blind or hide my light, His Light, “under a basket so the world cannot see it”; I want to be abnormal, as, you have said, you do and are. So should everyone else, especially those who value success more than significance.
Ever read the book “Soul Cravings” by Erwin Raphael McManus? It’s a must read, especially for those who are “becoming” and who, in their journey of self-discovery called life, are “becoming” closer in their relationship with God while, slowly-but-surely, through the Spirit, discerning His purpose for their lives. In Entry 18 of the “Destiny” section, McManus writes, “When you choose to ‘become,’ you become an enemy of the status quo. To ‘become’ is to change and to bring change”; change that, because of your “becoming,” “…makes a difference” in someone’s life.
“…amazing grace…I was blind, but now I see” — “becoming” is the verb; “abnormal” is the noun; the who and the what; me on the journey; “…being His witness, ‘making disciples, making a difference'” — “…now I see…amazing grace.'”