I just want to be normal!

"I just want to be normal," seems to be a common mantra among us. I have been wrestling with a fear for about a year now and it is time to confess it and let it out. Like film being developed I want it destroyed by the light of confession. I am afraid to be seen as a weird Christian. I have a passion to see people get out of wheel chairs, the dead to be raised, to prophecy over people in Wal-Mart, to lay hands on the sick in Wendy's (I totally chickened out today on this one). But my fear keeps me from going through with it on a regular basis.

My fear haunts me with things like, I don't want people to duck out of rooms when I come in or to be talked about behind my back and the Christian gossip words be thrown into it, "but he has a good heart." I don't want to be "that guy."

But I have been toying with a question of late, "what's my standard of normal?" Is it other people? It's like how churches compare themselves to one another, "we've got good worship," compared to who? If my standard of normal is other people than I might be considered weird.

So I have two ways of thinking going on inside of me, don't do it, it's the wrong timing, they may reject you and the other side of me is speaking so gently this person is hurting, broken, in physical pain, they long for freedom.

So I have come to the conclusion, I want to be normal, but not the normal kind of normal. My standard of normal is not the person next to me or down the pew from me, it's Jesus. What did Jesus do? He healed the sick, raised the dead, spoke life into broken situations. So the conclusion is this, for me as a Christ Follower it's weird for me not to look like Jesus.

The fear that has been wanting me to not be weird was actually keeping me weird.

My challenge for us today is what's keeping you weird?

There is a book coming out by Jon Welton titled "Normal Christianity" which will be dealing with this very topic. Check out Jon's Website for more information.

In my next blog I will be talking about the motive behind healing and prophecy, so stay tuned.