“… being normal isn't necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage.”
“Dad, are we normal?” Jason asked me a few months back.
“No, Jason. We’re not normal in America or Japan. Normal people don’t have ten children and live in a foreign country.”
These days, I could add a lot more reasons to that answer. For instance, January 3, 2010, the first Sunday of the year, Sarah and Micah stayed home with one or two sick babies and they kept a few more so the rest of the family could go to church without too much strain. We just happened to have friends visiting from Australia who were coming to lunch after church. Sarah and Micah thought they would also have a little extra time to prepare the meal.
A few minutes into my New Year’s message, I saw Elizabeth jump up in a panic and run out the front door. Ericah ran out the side door. It was only after the rest of us arrived home we learned what happened. The following story is as accurate as I can piece it together.
Micah was kneeling on the floor changing one of the babies who had deposited a massive BM in his diaper. Ma-kun crawled over, grabbed a handful of the solid waste, and started sampling and redistributing the dark matter. Sarah picked him up and headed for the shower. In the mean time, Shota, who loves popcorn, started stuffing his mouth as fast as he could. Choking on the kernels, he began throwing up beside Micah and the baby. Micah, in her not so delicate way, yelled for her mother. Sarah came flying out of the bath area, tripped on something [she still doesn’t remember what happened] and landed face down in the living room. That’s when Micah called the church and franticly requested immediate backup.
Sometimes my life is so far beyond what I see in others, beyond how I grew up, and even beyond what it was a year ago, I almost scream, “Lord, I just want to be normal.” But, immediately, I know the problem with that cry: “Who defines what is normal?” When Paul wrote the Corinthians, “Let all things be done decently and in order” he was not giving us license to define what is “decent” and what is “in order.” We have used that verse in every generation to define what is acceptable in a meeting and even what is an acceptable way to preach and teach. I am convinced that only the Holy Spirit can accurately define what is “decent and in order” in any and all situations. AND, only HE knows what is “normal” for “me” at any given point in time. You can relieve a lot of stress by letting HIM determine what is normal.
In my Oral Communication class at the university I asked a young girl on my left, “Are you a normal Japanese girl?” “Yes,” came the immediate reply. I turned to a young girl on my right and asked the same question. “Of course,” she said confidently. The student to my left, who had very limited English skills, was wearing black and gray clothes, no make-up, and black-rimmed glasses. The girl to my right had short cropped hair which she dyed a different color every week, played drums in a punk rock band on weekends, and spoke very fluent English. Looking at one and then the other, I asked, “How can both of you be normal?” I couldn’t shake them. Each was convinced she was the typical Japanese girl. It is very important here to be considered “normal.” The Japanese proverb says, “The nail that stands up gets hammered down.”
“To be normal is the ideal aim of the unsuccessful.” Carl Jung
Photo: Jason say, "Man with 3 hands play mean drums!"
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