Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884

A new "normal"

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen. 1:1)

NORMAL: Conforming to a standard, pattern, level or type. Considered usual, typical and routine.

We’ve heard a lot about returning to a new normal post COVID-19. Whatever that is, whatever that was, we find difficult to define or desire to do.

For many, the before was not very attractive, nor is the ahead. A reason for this apprehension of the prior and subsequent normal is that our soul may not be satisfied with the standard that was set and routine that followed.

What is needed, is what God originally created “good”. And that alone is the pattern of “normal.”

The best path towards the original standard set forth in God’s restoration is through the Cross of Christ. It is the development of personal promises through the Bible, wrapped in a routine of God’s everlasting, daily dose of unconditional love.

Sin stains the soul, causes us to flee from our heavenly home, breaks human hearts and masquerades as typical. This routine is deadly.

The original normal sees strength in weakness. It is the beginning (Garden of Eden), middle and end of all life.

Despite troubles, God’s promises move forward with and require participation by His creation. This avoids speculation and suspicion and results in participation.

Faith (context and foundation) in God is not an abstract theory, it’s a level and typical living relationship. The human experience often comes with a minimal number of details that does not satisfy the soul.

The longing for everything to fit together in the right way, seeing beyond this world of accidental and disconnection, is a reflection on our brokenness. Faith in God, the old and new, forces us to ponder a need for normality.

One of Christianity’s greatest strengths is its explanatory power. Christianity can explain the human experience and the human condition far better than any other worldview.

The underlying reality of normal is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Proper position in God’s normal allows us to see our place in His picture. A view that makes sense when the world does not.

The most beautiful thing you can do is locate your life in God’s story.

And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen 1:31)