normal

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Normal Is Going To Be Different From Now On

Things are opening up in Ontario, but that doesn’t mean we are getting back to normal.

Normal Is Going to be different

Normal would be making sense of things. Normal would be going back to the way things were just a few months ago. 

With the province opening up, we are entering a wide spectrum of twists to things we would normally be doing. 

I realize that there are things that have changed for good. We won’t do some things the same any more. There are other things we will continue to do because we have experienced them and found them to be a good thing. 

An example would be at my church. We didn’t do online services or group meetings before, but we will most likely continue to do them, even after the province has completely opened up. 

But there are things that we can go back to doing now that are not exactly like they were before.

An example is what we do at the beach. Two weeks ago we couldn’t even go on the beach by our cottage. Someone was fined $800 for flying a kite on the beach!  

Now we can walk on the beach again and also go in the water, but – and this is a big “BUT” – you can’t stop on the beach. 

That’s right, you can walk along the beach and go in the water, but you can’t stand on the beach and watch a sunset. You can’t spread your towel out on the beach and lie on it, nor can your children play in the sand on the beach. That would technically be stopping on the beach.

So if a family goes down to the lake and their kids are in the water, Mom and Dad also have to be in the water. They can’t be watching from the beach … because that would mean they are stopped. 

I’m pretty sure that in no one’s books would that be considered normal. 

Let’s remember that we are Canadians. We have a pretty large personal space circle around us. When people lie on the beach, they don’t put their towels closer than six feet to the group beside them … ever! That would be weird, and so un-Canadian!

I liked a facebook post I saw. It was a picture of an empty prairie road and the caption read, “Saskatchewan: social distancing since 1920”.

We are getting back to doing activities that we normally do when the weather is nice, but we are now doing them in a weird way. 

I wonder if walking in circles, small circles, around a towel on the beach, like you would if you were playing musical chairs … or towels, would count as moving. 

… The provinces may be opening up again but there is a weirdness to what we can do. It’s not really like getting back to normal. 

Here’s the thing: As things open up and we can slowly return to our old ways of worshipping God, there have been some new ways of worship that we have been introduced to. “Normal” going forward may include some new expressions and avenues of worship and study, so learn to embrace the new, the weird, and keep moving forward. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What new experience from COVID have you tried that you want to continue? Leave your comments and questions below.

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You May Not Be As Strange As I Think

 

The other day I came to realize I’m as strange as other people.

I think most of us think we are normal and everyone else is a little weird … or, at the very least, that other people have odd quirks about them that we don’t.

That’s not correct. I see now that we all have our little bits of oddness; we are all odd.

… Which reminds me of a club in my city – it’s called the Odd Fellows. Now there is a group that has embraced the fact that they are not like most people. They are okay with being strange, a little off-centre, even weird. And they have banded together to accept one another. 

I guess that’s what we should all do. 

I came to my realization of being odd during a conversation about the strange eating habits of other people. Granted it was almost dinner time, the BBQ smelt delicious and I was hungry. 

I mentioned that I knew a guy who didn’t like his food to touch and who ate his food one item at a time. 

My friend jumped in at that point and said, “What’s wrong with that? I don’t like my food to tough either and I always eat my food in an order.”

My first thought was, “Wow! There are two of them out there.” 

But that was really nothing compared to this guy I know. When he would eat pizza, he would separate all the parts. That’s right, the toppings (eg. pepperoni) would each go in separate piles, the cheese in another pile, leaving the crust bare. Then he would systematically eat each pile until that pizza all came back together in his belly. 

They say that when you eat, your food gets all mushed together, but when you eat like this guy I think your food actually reforms to its original prepared state!

That description even made my friend, who identified with this guy, exclaim, “Wow”, as in, “That guy really is weird.” 

But this is where it started getting spooky for me. I kept thinking and talking about how I eat some foods. 

For instance, when I have corn-on-the-cob with my meal, I always eat it first. Before I eat or taste anything else, I finish off my corn. But if the corn is already off the cob as kernels on my plate, then I eat them with everything else.

When I eat Chinese food, I always eat my egg roll first. I never leave it to the last, or eat part of it and save some for the middle of my meal. I down that thing first.

When I eat at Swiss Chalet, the first thing I do when I get my meal is butter that bun and eat it. I don’t touch the fries or the chicken until that bun hits the bottom of my stomach.

And It was right about then that I realized, “I’m as weird as the guy who eats pizza like it’s a  three course meal!” 

I don’t think I can handle the idea of me being weird so it must be that we are all a little odd … which actually makes us all the same.

Here’s the thing: We are all in need of the same saviour because, though our sins may be different, and some sin may SEEM worse than others, the fact is we are all the same in that we all sin. Never excuse your sin as being normal. We’re all in need of a Saviour – Jesus Christ – and His forgiveness.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What sin have you excused yourself of because you view it as normal? Leave your comments below.