It’s 1:32 in the morning, I'm sleepless and thinking all kinds of thoughts about life, this world we live in, and the time I’ve wasted away. Time is such an odd entity. We live with the concept of earthly time until the day we reach our eternal life, then it all changes. Earth is subject to the irreversible and never ending cycle of time: birth, life, and death - the undeniable definition of time for all who walk under the sun. What I often forget in the seemingly endless moments of time on this earth, is the remarkable time awaiting us at the gates of heaven. James 4:14 depicts the fragility and briefness of our life on earth, just dust in the wind at the end of our often long awaited pillow-crashing days, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Well isn't this a harsh statement to believers, so we’re just mist? Nothingness?. A hard pill to swallow, but also a harsh and needed reminder to know that what feels so permanent now is only a fleeting and temporary matter in the eyes of Jesus. But, our gentle and caring Father also wants nothing short of our undivided attention and pursuit while we are here on earth. Apathy is the last thing Jesus wants from us, “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16).
So, normality is around us, it's in us too. Time flies by, and we are stuck in our routines, which is far from what we so often wish was the perfect little lives we dreamed up to have. We wish we could be labeled a difference maker, an optimist, a world changer, the list goes on and we all want these titles to mark what was at the forefront of our lives at the end of the day. Can't we admit we still want this? I sure do. Where I got really stuck tonight is in these mind-blowing facts about what we actually do (and don’t do) in our lifetime: -We spend around 11 years watching TV -We spend around 4.4 years eating food -We spend around 5 years searching the internet -We spend around 1 year deciding what to wear - We spend 29.7% of our lives sitting down -And here’s a crazy one: the average human spends 41% of their lives (10,625 days) looking at a technological device. The list goes on & on. After reading these statistics, all i could think is “this is pure craziness”. Then, for a moment, I denied that I was one of those “average humans” bundled into the statistic of the modern day addictions of which we call “normal”. But, I am, you are, we all are in some way, shape, or form. We call so many things normal when they really shouldn’t be. We’ve adjusted our scale of normality to what suits us best and what feels comfortable to us. But the truth to the matter is that Jesus was never normal, and he calls us to be just the opposite also. This isn’t a call to go off the grid or throw away all that is time consuming and pointless. This is just a wake up call for myself and maybe some others too. These crazy numbers hit home with me as I realized that my normal should look a whole lot more like the life of Jesus and a whole lot less like the rest of this world. I need a new normal. In reality, the gospel is being twisted every single day into something that is watered-down and completely contrary to the holy truth. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6) I say to you, there are different gospels out there my fellow believers. There’s incorrect teaching and all kinds of distortions of Christianity in this fallen world. But the true gospel of Jesus calls us to a higher standard of living. One that is fully surrendered to the cause of Christ and the gospel of the one who saved our souls. A new normal for me is reminding myself daily that although this world has created its own normal, I as a follower of Jesus am not going to walk towards the wide gate but rather the narrow one that Jesus led, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) When hard times come, and he promises they will, I stand firm in the truth that leading a new normal life is precisely what Jesus calls us into. And all along, through the hardest moments and the most beautiful ones, he promises us peace. What a beautiful reminder that is. “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.” (Psalm 29:11) So with this purpose, we conquer these staggering statistics marked to generalize mankind, -Let’s spend those 4.4 years eating food with people so that we can love more and be more like Jesus. -Let’s spend those 5 years searching the internet so we can find ways and new opportunities to reach the unreached. -And let’s use that 29.7% of our lives sitting down to strategically plan how we will be the next difference maker for the one who we call Abba. New opportunities arise when we rise into the position that has been there for us all along: leading a new normal life. The new normal begins now brothers + sisters. -gabrielle Sources: https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/how-many-days-of-your-life-do-you-have-sex-your-lifetime-by-the-numbers https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/life/30-surprising-facts-about-how-we-spend-our-time/ss-BBjeV3f#image=29
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