Kingdom Normal

This was a tweet from @deaninserra . I had to retool it a bit to fit here and I hope I didn’t misconstrue any of his points! Here’s the original in it’s entirety:

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I think part of Christian discipleship is helping people redefine “normal.”

The things you see in this world might seem normal, but it is exactly that, a “normal” for the gods of this world, not the kingdom of God.

-Your parents screaming at each other isn’t normal.
-A life of greed isn’t normal. 
-A professing Christian being detached from the local church isn’t normal.
-Covering up abuse for the powerful isn’t normal.
-Functional alcoholism isn’t normal.

There is a new normal for anyone who is in Christ. New creations. Old gone, new here.

Teach a new normal. Kingdom normal.
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This resonated with me so much. Now, I don’t want to say that to be a “normal Christian” requires you to be perfect but I think it does require an action to rewire the things you use to tolerate before you were in Christ. Parents who scream at each shouldn’t be content to just live in that state – that’s not the design. Greed, consumption, and living on the hedonistic treadmill is not the prescribed way to live based on any verse I’ve ever read. And on and on.

I want to be careful here because I think institutionally we go down a dark hole when we try to figure how to adjust peoples behavior at large. A.) I’m not sure it works and B.) it leads to “good stats” while people who suffer are churned through the machine and spit out.

But the heart change described here is so refreshing. Instead of taking the “normal” things of this world and making them ours we redefine them the way that they’re supposed to be. Kingdom normal.