24 years old. I remember the feeling of
disembarking the plane that had carried me from Quito, Ecuador to the United
States. I looked forward to eating cheeseburgers, drinking Mountain Dew and not
struggling so hard to communicate. I had accomplished what I set out to do in
completing the AIM program and was coming home. But as the days unfolded, there
was something not quite right. Something was different. It was not just that my
elementary-aged brothers had aged or my other siblings had already left home.
Something was missing.
That something…was normal. I wanted to get
back to normal.
Normal
as defined by the dictionary means “conforming to the standard or the common
type; usual; regular.” Normal defined by our emotions is slipping back into a
place where we feel safe, accepted, at home. Though we may not be able to put
it to words we sense that we will know it when we feel it and we can become
quite disoriented when we don’t. This shows up with significantly more
intensity if we have longed for “normal”, only realizing on arrival that it has
escaped us.
Peter knew normal. Normal was sitting in a
gently rocking boat. Normal was feeling the weight of the nets as he tossed
them into the sea. Normal was looking across at his brother and co-worker,
Andrew, as he had done since he was young. But his normal gave way to something
else. The traveling Rabbi wanted just a little at first, use of the boat as a
buffer for the crowds. Then he asked for more: a dirtying of already cleaned
nets, exertion of already tired muscles, pressing of already strained patience.
But then Peter was a witness to the amazing. In that moment he was changed,
humbled, compelled to confess. But then the Rabbi did the most peculiar thing.
He didn’t let Peter slip back into normal. He called him out of it. He called
him into the adventure.
This
is you, fellow child of God who has taken the challenge of AIM. You experienced
God, just a little at first, but He kept coming back for you: Inspiring you,
causing you to dream dreams of great things. He wouldn’t let you go. So you
signed on for the Adventure and, let’s face it, it was more than we all
bargained for, but the fundamental truth is that you have changed. And when you
return, you have this sense of missing something, sometimes it is subtle and
sometimes it is crushing.
The
reason this is true is the same for you as it was for Peter. God is using all
aspects of your life to make you more like Him. As you change you become less
and less comfortable with your surroundings. The AIM experience accelerates
this dynamic, but you’re moving at such a rapid pace you may not notice its
happening. Until it ends. And then all you notice is that somewhere along the
way, you lost normal.
But the truth is
that God never called you to normal. He called you to become like Him and this
requires you to abide in Him and in Him alone. Any other place to abide becomes
competition. Though he provides us with a place to live and work to do, even
your physical body is to be considered a temporary tent.
All
of us who are giving our lives to Christ are constantly being introduced to a
new normal that is not tied to our physical surroundings. The New Normal is
being with Jesus no matter where we live. This New Normal is being connected
with Jesus’ body, no matter what language they speak or how they do church. New
Normal is being engaged wholeheartedly in the work Jesus leads us in, no matter
if it is at a university, a home, a factory or a church building. This New
Normal is following Jesus. Within this new normal we will find true and eternal
peace, acceptance and safety; our true home. Abiding here allows us to move
through all the changes He will lead us in without ever losing our footing. May
God give us eyes to see and the strength to follow in the new normal that He is
leading us into every day.
-Jason Thornton
Quito, Ecuador, 1992
