Flipping Tables

Tonight in Addictions class we talked about identity, belief and the idea of what is normal.  We questioned the idea that what is "normal" is always good.  Just because something is normal, does that make it good?  And how does that normal thing shape who I am, what I believe and how I behave?  

When Jesus showed up on the scene, He flipped the tables on all that was considered "normal."  He said things like, "You heard this, but I'm telling you that..." or "You thought that, but I'm telling you this..."  He didn't eliminate all of the old ideas - He illuminated them.  He brought them to light.  He made sense of them.  He said things and did things that revealed a much bigger picture with much brighter colors, colors the world had not yet seen.  

God seems to enjoy tampering with my normal.  Sometimes I find myself banging on His chest, pleading with Him to just leave me alone.  To be perfectly honest, I had a moment just this past week when I snapped at Him in prayer: "Seriously, does everything in my life have to be about You?  Can't anything just be mine... just be normal?"  Whoa... ugly, Tara.  Real ugly...and probably a little stupid.  

I'm so thankful that when I'm banging on His chest, pleading with Him to leave me alone, He doesn't.  This is God's mercy - that He doesn't listen to everything I say; that I am not the boss of Him.  That He doesn't get offended or wounded and wander away, whimpering, "Why doesn't she love me anymore?"  He knows I love Him - and He knows I love me more sometimes, too....  We're working on it.  

But I love Him more every time He doesn't let go.  I love Him more every time He tampers with my normal.  Every time He "makes everything have to be about Him all the time."  Yes, somehow, I love Him a little bit more.  There's grace in this.  There is grace in this God who relentlessly, meticulously sneaks Himself into every picture and every painting hanging on the walls of my life.  He makes Himself the point of everything because He actually is the point of everything, so when I find Him everywhere, in all things and at all times, well... it's because that is the normal that is good - always.

This is how He does it.  This is how He makes all things beautiful: He places Himself in them.  And this is what He is doing with my life.  All of a sudden, I could not be more happy to be "normal."

Here we go, flipping tables...