I don’t know when “normal” stopped being its usual self, but it seems like life just hasn’t felt very normal in quite a while. As we transition to a new year, I’ve been reflecting on what transpired in 2024 and projecting what 2025 might bring. In doing so, I’ve discovered that perhaps things are actually more normal than I realized.

I don’t know what your version of normal would be on any given day, but I tend to think that one without surprises, without encountering extremes of thought or behavior, or without going to bed with more questions in my head than answers, could mean that life – for the moment – is sitting on status quo.

Consider what would have been a normal day for Jesus. Do you suppose he ever had one? I wouldn’t know because there is only one human who has ever walked the earth in a Divine state of being, while also being human. Perhaps Jesus had normal days when he was younger, but I have a feeling it didn’t last very long. Stories of Jesus as a child (Luke 2:41-52) separating himself from his parents to stay behind and converse with church leaders isn’t something most twelve-year-olds would do. But not only did he do that, he amazed the religious teachers and leaders with his perspective, his challenging questions, and their inability to grasp much of what he put before them. I’d say he made their day quite abnormal!

But isn’t that what Jesus does everyday, especially for people who have claimed faith as a way of life? If that is you and me, then the daily to-do list Jesus gives us likely doesn’t include “maintain the status quo”. When we tell the world, or even just ourselves that we are Jesus followers, we are signing up to be in conflict with much of how we are wired, what human nature tends to prefer, and just about everything that is comfortable, pleasing, refreshing, and self-satisfying.

In reflecting on the changes that took place in my life, and in the lives of many in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference in 2024, I admit I am unsure of when life will feel normal again. But I also know that when God goes to work, when Jesus shows up, or when the Holy Spirit moves – life will not be normal…and in that we can find our hope.

What we might need to learn is that yearning for normalcy will leave us perpetually frustrated, unless we are willing to embrace the abnormality of the Gospel. When people first heard the “Good News” most reacted with anger and fear, because it wasn’t normal to them. But to those who longed for acceptance, understanding, healing, and hope the Gospel proclaimed a status quo they longed for.

The tension of those differences of opinion, perspective, or vision for God’s Will being done on Earth as it is in Heaven, is always there. It is in the midst of the brokenness we feel, the sinful temptations we fight, the urge to judge others before ourselves. It is counter to what God instructs us do, say, and feel…yet it is our sin-filled version of normal.

Perhaps the best resolution we could consider for the year ahead, and beyond, would be to embrace the glorious, sin-shattering, judgement-breaking, love-fostering, awe-inspiring abnormality of the Good News, and see what the Year of our Lord 2025 just might look like? I can guarantee you, it won’t be normal.

Striving for Abnormality…

Rev. Dr. David O. Weatherly