Still trying to find the new normal? Join the club. What is normal? According to Merriam-Webster, the word came into our language in the 17th century as a carpentry term, meaning to form a right angle. By extension, it was applied to that which is “done exactly, according to the rule, or square” (Merriam-Webster). Today we use the word to refer to what is average or typical—how we are supposed to think and feel. So, how do we go about finding our new normal?
If our new normal is determined by how we are supposed to think and feel—that is, by the expectations of those around us—then we are headed in the wrong direction. The majority-rule approach of today’s political correctness is deceptive. Moses warned his people not to “follow the masses in doing evil” (Ex. 23:2). Majority-opinion is never a safe guide (Mt. 7:13-14).
Another guide people use to find their new normal is self-rule. In other words, we are the ones who decide upon our new normal. The turbulent and often rebellious biblical period of the Judges, is described in Scripture as a time when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 17:6). While self-rule appears “normal” in our age of moral relativity; there is a supreme, over-arching truth which must be considered. Namely, that “each one of us must give an account of himself to God” (Rm. 14:12).
This brings us back to the 17th century definition of what is normal: that which is “done exactly, according to the rule.” This has greatest promise of success. When Joshua was finding his new normal after the death of Moses, he listened to the voice of God who said, “be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go” (Joshua 1:7–8). What he discovered is what we must discover—that our new normal is not new at all. Our normal is to remain consistently centered in the will of God as revealed to us in the Scriptures.
–Glen Elliott–