Normal?

Yesterday I got up thinking, “Well maybe this will be a normal day!” I’m not sure what I thought was normal. Thing is though, some of my day was “normal.” You see I like to write the talk for Sunday as early in the week as I can. There are reasons for that. One is that it takes time to write a talk and I never really know how long it will take. I heard one minister say it took him “about six hours to actually write a talk, and a lifetime’s experience to know what to write!” I get that. So I like to start on Monday. Normal. But I wasn’t in the office. I was in the makeshift office upstairs at home. Not normal. And then I have to copy my notes so it can be typed (yes I’m old fashioned and write with a pencil. It’s just how it works for me!) I have to get the talk to Clare to type who is not in the office! Not normal. And that’s how it seems to be. A mixture of “normal” and “not normal”. I’m still doing services, but not at the church. I’m still counselling, but not at the hospice. Today I’m taking funerals. Sadly normal. But there’ll be nobody there. Not normal. Some things will become the new normal. Which reminds me of one of my favourite stories: Mr. Topsy-Turvy. He’s great. But he’s not normal. He says things like: “Morning good” instead of “Good morning"!” He upsets the local art gallery by turning all the pictures upside down so he can look at them properly! But what happens is extraordinary. After a while, Mr. Topsy-Turvy leaves town. Nobody knew where he came from and nobody knows where he’s gone. And strangely people find themselves saying: “Morning good” to one another, just like Mr. Topsy-Turvy did. After he left, some things have become the new normal. Which got me thinking about another story where a man came to town but no-one really knew where he’d come from. And when he left no-one really knew where he’d gone. But he certainly left his mark! And some people spoke like him and lived like him. New normal. It may be that my new normal will, in fact, be better than my old normal. Seems to me the same is true in the journey of faith especially in a time when I find myself asking: what is normal?