When Will Life Go Back to Normal?

The question tugs at our minds, steals into our conversations, weighs heavy on our hearts: when will life go back to normal? We’ve been in a perpetual limbo state, it seems, where the only thing we are completely certain of is that we can’t be certain about much. School decisions loom, as does everything that hinges upon what school will look like next year. We wonder aloud if the activities that require large gatherings will be endlessly postponed. Yet even here, in the awaiting, we do still have choice: grieve or begrudge, love deep and wide and true or let our caring wane, complain or savor, retreat or embrace.

Our choice lies not in our circumstances, but in who we will be in our current lives. Will we be people who reflect the heart of our heavenly Father to draw all near so they might know Him? Will we be guided by love and marked by hope? Will our joy hold substance or crumble with things that we’d like to wish away? Will we be missional through the messy, the dreary, and the downpours?

Listen in to these words from Psalm 56:4:

“With God on my side I will not be afraid of what comes. The roaring praises of God fill my heart, and I will always triumph as I trust his promises” (TPT).

My heart catches on the phrase in the middle: “the roaring praises of God fill my heart.” It sounds like a fire-works display of gratitude, like thanksgiving that perhaps began as a trickle but now thunders loud as a waterfall. This is a gratitude that saturates like soaking rain—something unmistakably defining the posture of our hearts. And what does this gratitude do? It increases our ability to trust that God’s promises are true. We can take Him at His word, remember that His nearness mitigates our anxiety and fear.

God is near, no matter what tomorrow looks like. God is with me, even if normal will be forever re-defined. God is present, even when I don’t see it or feel it.

Perhaps it’s time to stop asking the question, “When will life go back to normal?” and ask instead, “What will my normal be?” What rhythms will flavor my life? Who will I be even when this is the only question I have power to answer?

We were never promised that life would be always be Pinterest-worthy, that joining the mission of the God who adopted us would be uncomplicated and endlessly linear. But God does faithfully guide and instruct us, as we surrender to His touch as clay does in a potter’s hands. And this we can be convinced of:

“Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakeable kingdom we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights his heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender, filled with awe. For our God is a holy, devouring fire!” (Hebrews 12: 28-29, TPT).

Here I thrice circle the word thankful. We are offered a new name, a new identity, and a new way of living. This more tangibly looks like security, belonging, and purpose. How very much we have to be thankful for! And the response that He longs for, the one that delights His heart? That we would simultaneously move towards Him and carry on His mission.

Movement towards Him indicates our adoration, our delight, our awe-invoked worship. But worship and mission are not two distinct things, because in carrying on His mission in our everyday lives we demonstrate our hearts of worship. We grab a band-aid for a neighbor kid’s bruised knee, share a meal with a neighbor family, help pick up branches fallen on the sidewalk and street during a storm, or put pause on what we were doing to listen to a neighbor’s story, and it’s worship. It moves God’s heart, just as it does when we lift our voices and outstretch our hands in response to His glory, goodness, and grace.

Perhaps gratitude is the key to missional living in the midst of our present uncertainty because it postures us to live with intention—present, joy-filled, peace-saturated, reflective of God’s heart and mission to those around us.  Our circumstances don’t have to wield power over us; we have choice in who we will be as we live though the circumstances that surround us. We get to choose how we will live—what normal looks like for us.

We don’t have to settle for what someone else’s normal is. We don’t have to be content with status quo. Our rhythms can be uncommon to the world but the new normal for us.

We talk about missional living rhythms often around here, but I wanted to condense them into a single location easy to access. I’m excited to announce that The Uncommon Normal manifesto is now available as a free printable. I hope that it can be a visual guidepost to remind you of the direction we are heading as we take baby steps into a mission-infused lifestyle.

I’ll share the words of the manifesto here, and I encourage you to grab your free download if you would like to print it.

We posture our hearts like an open door, welcoming our neighbors into our hearts, homes, and lives. We let the things God is doing in our own lives ripple out beyond us. We cultivate lives worth imitating through a rhythm of spending time daily with God. We live from the overflow of grateful hearts. We don’t push our words ahead of our actions. We are humble, honest, and interruptible. We take notice of those around us. We create margin in our schedules for doing life with our neighbors. We know the direction is more important than the pace, so we keep taking baby steps even when we feel imperfectly ready. We are nurturing, one rhythm at a time, an uncommon normal.

The Uncommon Normal Manifesto

We will close with a few reflection questions to help jumpstart your conversation with God about what your normal will look like going forward and then a short prayer.

• Am I able to hold my expectations of tomorrow with open hands?
• What does it mean for me to offer pure worship?
• Am I living from the overflow of a grateful heart?
• What dream is stirring in my heart?
• What lies in the way of leaning into that dream?
• What is the baby step immediately before me?

Let’s pray.

You are here, present with me while thoughts wander and my sense of control wavers. You are here, present in my questions, the thread of clarity in the muddle of uncertainty. Would You reword my question of “When will life go back to normal?” so I can instead ask “What will be my normal going forward?” Give me a glimpse of You, Lord, and the mission I get to be part of in my neighborhoods. In Your holy and precious name we pray, Lord, amen.

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P.S. Did you know that The Uncommon Normal is also available as a podcast? Tune in to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen!