Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while.
I was at a youth conference last weekend called Acquire the Fire. It was in Toronto, and I went with my youth group.
It was an amazing time–what it is, in essence, is 27 hours of straight worship. No games, no goofing off, just straight-out worship and speakers and talking about God!
There were some speakers who were hilarious, some that were really serious, and the worship was amazing. School of Worship was in charge of that part, and the girl on the band could sing! :O
The theme of the conference, though, was “Normal’s Not Enough”.
That raises the question: What is normal? What does it mean to not be normal?
We talked about this in youth group tonight and to me, this phrase means that we need to choose to live apart from the world. Christianity is a leap of faith–we’re giving up the things of this world for the hope that there’s a better world to come.
But as a Christian it’s easy to slip into a “Christian-by-name” phase.
What God did for us was not normal. It was anything but normal. And we think that giving him only part of us is acceptable.
How blind are we, anyway?
When you go sky diving, there is no middle ground. You’re either on the plane, or you’re out. It’s the same way with faith–the normal way is to play it safe–to stay on the plane. To say we’re a Christian, go to church, have our Christian group of friends. But the way God wants us to live is to be on fire for him, to proclaim his name to whoever will listen. To be joyful even in the midst of suffering–to have an attitude of surrender, of complete and utter trust in God.
Normal is easy. Different is hard.
We’re standing on the edge of a cliff. Right now we’re standing on solid ground, the stuff we can see, feel, taste, hear–the things of this world. But on the other side is what is unimaginable–God, and his glory, his splendor.
It’s your decision to jump or not. God is waiting, ready to catch you. You are the only person who is stopping you from having the most amazing experience of your life. Normal is not enough–living a normal life is not enough. Who wants to be remembered as someone who didn’t do anything special? God has so much more in store for you. You just need to jump.
God wants to catch you.
But you need to jump.
Becca
You’re right! Sometimes I get scared to get out of my perceived “comfort zone” but I’m realizing that that’s where the real adventure is! and that’s where the Lord can really use me. Great post!
You…I must say that’s so true. I mean, I think this past summer really made it clear to my and my family. Basically, I was comfortable in my situation, I mean, I had lived in Ottawa for over 10 years in the same house, and school and quizzing were “normal”.
And then we moved and practically everything changed. That’s not normal. But it was definitely the right time to go, in many different ways that I can’t explain in a small amount of time. All I know is that God did something “abnormal” in our life…and it was awesome.
I know you talk about us taking the leap, and I must say I haven’t been all that good at doing that, but sometimes God gives us the shove. And…in times like those, I hated it. But now I’m loving it…(mostly)…lol
Great post,
Jared Poon
(from Calgary, AB)