Needing a Label

What’s ‘normal’?
A little girl is asked, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” The little girl grows up, finishes high school and is asked, “What’s your major?”

Hmm... Nothing wrong with that, right? We see it everyday, it’s been that way for longer than we’ve been alive, it’s normal.

But is it?

When I look at the full panoply of history, I become more and more convince that something drastic must have happened at some point to this thing called ‘mankind.’ The reason I say this is, they have something wrong with them. They remind me of, well, a fish. One that’s out of water and flopping around on the shore. Flop, flop, flop, flap, struggle, plop, flap, flop... mankind has never been able to fully decide on or figure out what’s ‘normal.’ Back and forth and all around, there are salty fish-flopping prints all over the pages of history!

I mean, go ask an ancient people how many wives a guy should have... they’ll tell you from their hearts: as many as he can afford! Go ask a good American from the 1800s and he’ll tell you from their hearts: one! Go ask a modern-day African tribal leader and he’ll tell you from his heart: as many as he can afford!

Go ask an American colonist what the normal way for a woman to dress is. Go ask the same thing in the 1920s. Now find the nearest modern-day Amish person.

Do you see what I’m getting at? A culture’s ‘normal’ is just a fleeting fad! I’m certainly not advocating relativism, I am just trying to point out that if we think we’ll find truth by following what is accepted ‘normal,’ we’ll turn into fish. ;)

You can probably guess where I’m going with this (I tend to have a one-track mind), so I might as well go there. God didn’t just create the universe, he also created the way things should be set-up... He created ‘normal.’

Uh... bad news.
Then mankind fell.

Sooo... we’re left with the interesting task of re-discovering the truth of ‘normal.’ (More on that topic soon!) I believe that God is the source of ultimate truth. (Psalm 119:160, John 17:17, 14:6, 18:37, etc.) I believe that Jesus, as the Incarnate Word (John 1) is truth. I believe that our culture’s ‘normal’ should fall prey to God’s TRUTH of what ‘normal’ was really intended to be.

I would like us to notice what God declares ‘normal’ for young women. The ‘normal’ I am able to find in scripture is a very capable woman who runs a wonderful home, a highly skilled helper to her husband, a ‘ninja’ mom (to quote my cousin) raising children who love the Lord, a woman who is prepared to offer hospitality, a woman who will Titus 2 younger women, etc. That is ‘normal’ according to the One who ought to know.

Is God’s ‘normal’ enough for us?
Or are we going to open our ears to the lie that it’s limiting and unfulfilling?

Is God’s ‘normal’ a waste of our talents?
Or do we recognize the Lord’s graciousness in equipping us so well to fulfill this role?

Is God’s ‘normal’ what we train our hearts to desire?
Or do we train our appetites for something else?

Is God’s ‘normal’ a joy to declare when we turn 17, 18, 19 and people wonder what we’re going to do with our lives?
Or is it something to be embarrassed and apologetic about?

I would like to encourage myself and others to rejoice in God’s ‘normal,’ to regard it as enough, more than enough, a cup overflowing. I would like us to freely declare, “We are going to be mothers!” without feeling the need to tack on a ‘truly important’ college major or career plan label. I would like for us to turn our hearts toward home, toward our siblings, toward our homes to come, toward our children yet to be born. To do this, we must feed the correct appetites, prepare in the correct ways.

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7, NKJV) Remember, if we sow a career, we can hardly expect to reap a ‘ninja’ mom.

It will take defying the devil and the culture. It will take drinking the pure milk of the word and crucifying the flesh. Who will join me?