Raising Normal

“How are you?”

It’s a simple question, exchanged countless times every day. The responses are predictable: fine, great, okay, not bad, wonderful. But each person has their own inner metric for determining how they answer. We all have an individual sense of normal.


Six months ago, I was in a season of life in which I regularly woke up with a sense of dread and panic. It was an act of will to get up, get dressed, and go to work. My insides were jumpy, on edge. The slightest provocation led to gushes of tears and often fits of anger. I was tired. So very tired. A good day involved no panic attacks, and some quality time with loved ones. I’d think about times in my life when everything felt sunnier, but engaging in positive activities did little for my outlook. Not knowing how to cross these barriers to “better”, my normal was set.


“How are you?”
[hmmmm…. I am out of bed, trying to take care of the things for which I’m responsible….] “I’m fine!”

Last February, I learned that I have celiac disease. Many of my struggles now made better sense, in light of my body’s need for different nutrition. A week into the dietary changes, I called my boyfriend on my way to work because something extraordinary had happened: I felt happy.


In June, I learned of more food allergies and my diet has shifted once more. Now that it is summer, I have the space to spend large chunks of time reading the Word and resting. I’ve had the energy to pursue the things on my heart, like writing more and leading a dance group at church.


With every passing day, my normal is raising higher and higher. Normal now means that I am happy, hopeful, and free of fear. I have energy and am taking steps to serve others, instead of being too exhausted to try.


This has a lot to do with the actions I’ve taken, and it also has nothing to do with the actions. I wouldn’t have been able to take any action had it not been for a loving God who saw my pain and revealed the next step to take.

My normal will be stuck in the mud as long as I believe that my efforts will save me. God has a normal for me that surpasses any earthly normal I could ever imagine.


I am so glad to feel healthy and happy. And, I am not done. I want God to raise normal again. I want normal to be a life of miracles, healings, my family and community living in relationship with God, giving until it hurts, and seeing evil cease.


“How are you?”
[hmmmm….I saw a woman with cancer be totally healed, I fed some hungry people today…] “I’m fine!”

Whatever your normal is today, I pray that you would take it to God and receive a vision for all your life is, in Christ.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

-2 Corinthians 5:17