Back To Normal? … Hello weekend readers. The other day a camper asked me “Cyndy, do you think our country will ever get back to normal?” I told him “as a pastor all I can say is we have to put this into God’s hands; we must pray and don’t get sucked into the quagmire. And—always keep this in mind: the politicians may think they are on the throne but only GOD is on the throne.” He agreed and we shared a time of prayer. This episode got me musing on “what really is normal?” I looked for ideas but the Holy Spirit stepped in as usual, and whispered in my ear “Child, how about you try some Scriptures?” Duh! — She was right so here we go…

I landed on Psalm 85:1-3, 7-9 using the CSB translation. This Psalm is called: Restoration of Favor and it’s from the Sons of Korah:

“Lord, you showed favor to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave your people’s guilt; you covered all their sin. Selah! You withdrew all your fury; you turned from your burning anger. Show us your faithful love, Lord, and give us your salvation. I will listen to what God will say; surely the Lord will declare peace to his people, his faithful ones, and not let them go back to foolish ways. His salvation is very near those who fear him, so that glory may dwell in our land.”

And that is exactly what happened! After 70 years, they returned home only to find a city in ruins, the temple and homes turned into rubble and enemies still gunning for them. Instead of finding everything as they’d left it, they found utter destruction. They expected to get back to normal, but normal was completely gone.

How many times are we in that situation? I remember on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 1979, my parents were at church; quietly a policeman came in and told them their house was on fire and the fire trucks were on the way. My dad had built this beautiful new home and when they got there it was smoke and ashes. No normal in their lives that day, but they had one thing going for them—their faith! Many folks wind up with discouragement, deep disappointment and hopelessness in such losses. Sadly, many even lose their faith in God.

So here is the tough question: “What do we do when something we looked forward to doesn’t unfold like we hoped?” Well, let’s go back to the Israelites when their homeland was in ruins. Instead of “woe is me” they took the positive way: they asked the Sons of Korah to compose a song and then they sang it and used it in their prayer services. And the most important thing was they recounted God’s faithfulness and worshipped God, declaring God’s faithfulness and decided to have a revival! So when we read Psalm 85 we get the benefit of their faith!

Gosh, don’t you wish that perspective was your first choice? It should be but it certainly isn’t easy. Perhaps we should go back a bit in our lives and look at the past ruins we’ve gone through. Why? Well, we’re still here because of God’s faithfulness! This may sound crazy but doing this is a beautiful way to look past those trials and see how we have rekindled our hope and endurance even though we thought we could never expect to do so.

The Holy Spirit is good at giving us a “kick-start faith” along with a “kick-start heart. So, are we willing to listen? I think if we take the time to do so, we will experience a “normal” that only comes from God’s faithfulness. So why not start now—it’s a win-win for our faith, our testimony that we can share with others about our wonderful faithfulness of God! AMEN.