I’m Normal ‘Til You Get to Know Me

Suits of uncertainty fill every person,

Nobody has a full quota of trust,

We may think others are better,

But we’re all ‘normal’ until you get to know us.

We make comparisons, elevating many above us as ‘doing life better.’ But as soon as we get to know people we understand life is not as rosy for them as it once seemed. Everyone has problems.We need belief,
In order to grow.
So, go now and believe,
The Word entrenched in your heart,
Go now, be free,
And play your part.
W

What is Normal?

Most people want to be deemed normal, though there are those also who want to be better than normal – who wish to live a privileged life and be famous of some sort. But we make life unfair for ourselves when we classify others as more normal than we are. Maybe we think they have life more together. Perhaps they may think that of us, and, because we don’t know each other that well, we make all sorts of judgments and assumptions based on insufficient information. We are not as bad as we think we are and they are not as good as we think they are. Likewise, we are not as good as we think we are and they are not as bad as we think they are.

Life is less contrastive, regarding others in their life circumstances, than we think.

It is normal to have problems and struggles and frustrations and temptations, but these are all rather unique as they manifest themselves in us as individuals. We are similar but different, because we are characterised as normal in many different ways.

All this leads us to is an approximation of comparison; that comparisons just don’t help much of the time. Comparisons involve us in envy, in depression, in covetousness, and in resentment. And sometimes, the other way, comparisons lead us to gloat, which is also not healthy.

It should be our prayer that we would see ourselves as normal – the new normal; which is not really normal at all, but just as normal as the next person. We are blessed very fundamentally when we see ourselves similarly to the rest of God’s creation, and only differentiating God as the one above it all.

***

Many people seem superior or inferior until we get to know them. But we are more the same than different, for instance; our problems. We all have them; trials, frustrations, anger, hurts, and disappointments. These are the new normal.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.