redefining normal

Ecc. 8:17 "No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it."

It used to be that when I faced a time of trial, I would buckle down in it, pull out my Bible, and search out what God was trying to teach me. As a Christian this is not an altogether wrong way to respond, with verses like James 1:2-4, Romans 5:3-5, 8:28, and even Gen. 50:20 to lean on during difficult times.

Yet after recently facing an extended time of exhausting circumstances (I act as if only short trials should be required to refine my character), I began to suspect there was more to what God wanted me to know on this subject. Here's my earth-shattering discovery (drum roll, please!): life is hard because of the fall. Somehow I have forgotten the first 3 chapters of Genesis...that God made paradise on earth for man to live in, yet very quickly in rebellion, sin entered the world and life got really, really messed up. Somehow I expect from time to time that I ought to live in a perfect world, where everything gets resolved and every ending is happy (at least I don't expect a perfect world with no problems at all), but instead we have more heartache and difficulty than we could ever desire to live through.

During a long winter full of illnesses and other circumstances far beyond my ability to control, I cried out selfishly to God: "Please, can't I just have a normal week??" God brought 2 Cor. 4:8-11 to mind: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body." God was gently reminding me, "Leah, this IS normal. Your job is to simply glorify me in it."