Our New Normal

picture by Michelle N.

How did we get here I thought as I sat in church. I just couldn't understand it. It was a Sunday morning and I was sitting in church as the service was beginning. I was so sad and my heart was so heavy. I was missing Doug horribly and all I could do was cry and wonder how I was going to possibly get through this. I had woken up that morning after getting little to no sleep thinking of Doug and crying feeling like my world was just falling apart. I got my children up; we got dressed and left for the church all the time I kept asking "Lord, how will I ever get through this; everything is crumbling around me". I turned on the radio in the car to our local Christian Radio station hoping to drown out my thoughts and stop myself from crying only to begin crying again as a song that I had never heard started playing. As I listened I felt the Holy Spirit begin to stir something within me. "When everything falls apart your arms hold me together, when everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart, when everything falls apart and my strength is gone I find you mighty and strong I keep holding on…." He was telling me and reminding me just how wrapped tightly in his arms I was. As I sat in church the music started and though songs the Lord spoke to me once again letting me know that all I had to do was call upon him and know that he is God. Next came the message, by then the tears had dried and I was just praising God because he's always there to comfort you. The pastor started to preach and he started to talk about "new normal" within our lives. As I listened once again the Lord began to speak to my heart letting me know that this was our "new normal" within our changing season. You see we all have seasons that we go through, just like we have winter, spring, summer and fall we have seasons in our lives, within those seasons we have "new normal". Today my new normal could be working for the company that I currently work for but tomorrow I could be a stay at home mom. We need to change within our seasons. What was normal last season is no longer normal within this new season, that normal from last season is gone and we have entered a new normal. Our lives change every minute, hour, day, week, month and year yet we all want to stay where we are comfortable and although the seasons are changing around us we don't adjust to those changing seasons. If that season seems to be a hard season we want to curl up in bed and ask God to wake us up next season. We want to tell the Lord "I can't change" the change is too hard and I won't adjust but we can adjust. We are stronger than what we think; we have been made to change with our seasons. When we feel we can't change we have to trust the Lord that he is going to help us adjust and accept our "new normal" no matter how easy or hard it maybe. Acceptance is the key to adjusting. When we feel that our world is crumbling around us we need to realize that God is there and he will never let us go. We will never be alone in our "new normal". If we didn't have "new normal" the seasons in our lives would never come and we would be stuck in that one season all year round. I believe Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 says it best and I love the way The Message Bible best describes it. Let enjoy life and the changes God has put before us.

Ecclesiastes 3 – The Message Bible

There's a Right Time for Everything

¹ There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

^{2 -8} A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

^{9 -13} But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I've had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.

¹⁴ I've also concluded that whatever God does, that's the way it's going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God's done it and that's it. That's so we'll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear.
¹⁵ Whatever was, is.
Whatever will be, is.
That's how it always is with God.

"Lord thank you for this new season (opportune time) that has begun in my life, help me to accept and adjust to my new normal. Help me to see what it is you have for me and help me to wait on your promises. Allow me to change with every season within my life with you as my guide. Thank you Father….. Amen!"