What is Normal?

I live in a sea of new books (just ask my boyfriend who hates clutter), and I love it when God places a timely book in my hands. Last night I finished reading "A New Kind of Normal", the excellent soon-to-be-released book by Carol Kent. This was one of those 'gems' of a book, in that it was a book I had to digest - reading it in bite-sized chunks to try to apply some of it's rich lessons to my heart. I've had experiences that have turned my life upside down, not as public or dramatic as Carol's, but certainly ones that changed what is 'normal' in my day to day circumstances. Most of us have experienced this, I believe. What we don't experience, necessarily, is the perspective change necessary to make our new circumstances a good, new kind of normal. To be honest, the last couple of months in my life have been a new normal - between prolonged health struggles, a crumbling living situation, and multiple friends fighting some very serious battles, life has been anything but routine.

Carol used rich, vibrant quotes from other authors, and Scripture references throughout that resonated with my spirit. I have written out some of those quotes in my journal, and need to revisit them, but one of my favorites is:

"When suffering shatters the carefully kept vase that is our lives, God stoops to pick up the pieces. But He doesn't put them back together as a restoration project patterned after our former selves. Instead, He sifts through the rubble and selects some of the shards as raw material for another project -- a mosaic that tells the story of redemption."
(Ken Gire - The North Face of God)

I know this principle well - He has not patterned me today on who I was yesterday, but who I am in light of His redemption. May I not long for my old normal, but look ahead to His incredible, sometimes painful, always good work in transforming me from glory to glory.