the non-existence of normal

I think it is entirely possible that God's purpose for some people is to always be different. To remind people that there is no such thing as normal.

I don’t think there actually is anyone who’s normal. Normal is the word we use to mean the stereotype of perfection, what people should be like, what we wish our lives looked like. Why do we have an idea that there is normal? Engrained in each of us is a sense that we’re broken, that life isn’t exactly what it ought to be even though it seems to be the same for all of us. If normal meant, as it is, then we’d all be completely normal; but when we say normal we mean we want to be different than the state everyone finds himself or herself in—we want the pain and brokenness of life to be gone. So when we want things to be normal, what we're really aching for is redemption.

The dictionary defintion is: conforming to the standard. And standard... well, that's a grade of beef immediately below good. [thank you webster]

Somehow we’ve come to believe we only matter if we can prove it, we live in shame and guilt, with hidden thoughts that whisper if we really revealed all we are, all the darkness and light of our soul to someone else—we’d be rejected, we feel that no matter how much we’re appreciated, no matter how much we’re loved- it’s not enough. We’re too much and not enough at the same time, and no one would ever love us without conditions. There’s a place inside us that’s too dark to be accepted. We relate to the wrong people in stories. We want to be the heroes, the good ones, but we’re the ones who are jealous, insecure, bitter, betrayers. Yes, we’re a generation that’s needy—but we’d be the last to admit it. Neediness has become a great sin.

Which is ironic, because you can't recieve grace without realizing you're needy. And you can't be humble without dependency on God. Thinking that are sins are too great for God to forgive or change is the sneakiness sort of pride.

But maybe the hope for our generation is the death of the American dream. We don’t believe it anymore, the dream of our parents—we don’t believe in that idea of satisfaction. So we’re wanderers, a generation of seekers, but that leaves the necessary emptiness- hope for the hopeless, the position of helplessness is the death to the self-saving mentality that blocks us from redemption— hunger is the condition of redemption.

We're not normal, and we're needy. And thats where Love introduces Himself.