When life doesn’t go as planned, we suddenly long for things to “just be normal”. No sugar-coating, high-expectation kind of thing. Just plain normal. The last couple of weeks have been unusual..hmmm…well, really, they have been downright a bit weird.
It sorta began with me attempting to stuff our oldest daughter’s last remaining belongings up into the tippy top space of her closet. She recently left for college and our twelve-year-old son has been chomping on the bits to have his own room. Within seconds, the stool I was standing on slipped out from beneath me and my body came barreling down. Whipping quickly backward, my head hit the hard, stone floor. The wind knocked out of me. Quickly I felt nauseated and knew that a concussion had occurred.
A Longing to Just Be Normal
I could not remember people’s names. Even close friends. I would walk into a room and have no idea what initially caused me to go in there. I had frequent lightning bolt-like headaches.
Then, there was this menacing odor protruding from our bedroom. I was hesitant to say anything because I thought my husband just plain smelled. Badly. Like sweaty, locker-room, boys only smell. But the odor wasn’t dissipating after a couple of days and I had tried everything to get rid of it. Air freshener. Washing the sheets and comforter. Opening the windows.
Finally, I called pest control and sure enough, there were two dead mice in the attic. Yuck! I know! Grosses me out too.
Then, a water pipe broke somewhere in the neighborhood and our hot water circulators burned up. Thankfully, there was no fire or anything. My husband caught it in time. Boy, I have come to realize how much I like my hot water hot.
All that to say…sometimes life gets a bit pesky and things don’t go exactly as planned. Our little world gets a bit disrupted and we have to make a decision…
How are we going to act then?
Will we still sing praises and give God glory when things are not going our way?
Will we count it a blessing when in reality we feel like caving in?
Will we turn to Jesus rather than trying to fix it all by ourselves?
“There certainly are those times in our lives when we go looking for trouble and willfully sin out of rebellion toward God. But what I have found more often to be true in my own life is that the trouble finds me. I don’t wake up in the morning with intentions to be angry or bitter or resentful or jealous or depressed or impatient or frustrated or filled with gossip (trust me, I could keep going and going here). Those are not my intentions. That is not the person that I want to be. And yet, I find myself unintentionally sinning, and yes, even at times in seasons of sin, because I have been caught off guard. I have allowed my circumstances and certainly my emotional reactions to get the best of me.” From my book, I Didn’t Want to Be that Girl, A Look into the Life of Eve
Be Ready, the Enemy is Sly
May we be reminded: the Enemy is sly. He uses everyday situations and ordinary people to get us derailed. He isn’t dressed up in a red outfit with pointy ears, carrying a pitchfork. He doesn’t come with flashing lights or a billboard sign. No, he comes when we are least expectant. He is quite clever and disguised.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
But when life gets troublesome, we don’t have to cave in. Jesus uses pesky little things like dead mice and headaches to turn our attention back to him. This life isn’t meant to be perfect because eternity is waiting for us…it’s going to come.
We aren’t home yet
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU SEE YOUR BROKEN WORLD POINTING YOU TO ETERNITY? DOES A LONGING FOR NORMALCY TURN YOU TO JESUS?