Covenant Ministries of America​

I'm taking psychology classes,working toward a degree, and still the question remains, "What is normal?" Psychologists and textbooks will say that normal is, in it's basic meaning, "Whatever the majority of our culture approves of or does is normal."
But what if society approves of adultery ? Euthanasia? Dog eat dog ? Selfishness ? Since we are all imperfect, and frankly a bit abnormal, what standard do we use to measure normalacy in human beings ? 

I think the ultimate normal will be when Christ returns and we receive glorified bodies. Then there will be no sorrow, no sickness, no psychological and emotional problems to deal with. That will be total normalacy, then we will be completely human just as Jesus was completely human when He was here on earth. That's the hope that we have for the future, a world absent of human abnormalities.

Until that day however, normal is to believe that God loves us and is transforming us into the image of Christ (AS A HUMAN BEING). In other words, while we will not attain sinless perfection in this life, we can grow in kindness, love, mercy, courage, faith, brotherly love etc, etc..

Normal for us is acknowledging weakness yet just as strongly acknowledging the strength of Christ in us.
Normal is looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
Normal is praying for the sick.
Normal is feeding the poor.
Normal is being honest with ourselves and other Christians.
Normal is imitating Christ. (Emphasis on IMITATING)!

We have too many people ruining around implying or directly saying we either are Christ or we can be sinless like Christ. People come to those conclusions because we haven't properly been taught about the nature of Christ. He was/is both God and man, God in the flesh. That's a whole teaching to itself, but all I will say here is that God is not asking us to be God in the flesh. God is asking us to imitate Christ in his human nature.
I say emphasis on imitating because we still live in bodies that are weak. Our spirit is strong but the mind and body can be weak. God transforms us as we renew our minds in the truth. The truth is not just the written word ( the Pharisees had that ) the truth is everything about Christ, His Kingdom, and New Covenant, that is hidden in the written word. Look at it this way: the truth is the gold and tresure and the written word is like the earth the treasure is buried in. Many people read the word all the time but never come to the knowledge of the truth, hence the wars, divisions, atrocities, and other unchristlike (abnormal) behaviors that have come from misunderstanding the written word.
The more we renew our minds with the truth buried in the written word, the more we will be changed and become more like the humanity of Christ. The more we become like Christ the more normal we will be.

Normal is imitating Christ in his humanity.
Jesus prayed as a man who was empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit, and his prayers were answered.
Jesus saw the sick and was filled with compassion for them.
Jesus saved a woman's life from religious zealots who wanted to kill her.
Jesus spoke life into peoples hearts.
Jesus healed the broken hearted. Jesus delivered those burden under the yoke of religion.
Jesus was content with life.
Jesus was at peace in the middle of chaos, in other words, he didn't have anxeity attacks.
Jesus kept focused on his mission.
Jesus kept his identity intact, even when others falsely accused him.
The list could go on and on.
Jesus cared for others, as a man, in the name of the Father.

That's normal.