I Will Not Be Normal, I will be a Miracle

Every day I am greeted by a plaque on my desk that says, “I will not be normal, I will be a miracle”.  It is a constant challenge to me.  One of the many synonyms Webster gives for “normal” is average.  Average has many synonyms associated with it such as common, ordinary, and even mediocre.  I want to live above mediocrity.  I don’t want to be just average, just ordinary.    
 
One of the many definitions Webster gives for “normal” is the definition “occurring naturally”.   When I reflect on that definition, the first passage of Scripture in the Bible that comes to mind is 1 Corinthians 2:14 where it says, “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  God’s Word, God’s Will can only be discerned in the realm of the spiritual.  The natural man is here described as a man without the Holy Spirit in His life.   2 Peter 1:4 describes the    person who places his faith and trust in Christ as a “partaker of the divine nature”.  There is nothing ordinary about being a “partaker of the divine nature”.  When we trust Christ as our Savior an extraordinary thing happens; the supernatural Holy Spirit comes into our lives to guide us and help us discern His Word and His Will for our lives.  This is a miracle. 
 
Webster defines “miracle” as “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs”.  Every Christmas we celebrate the extraordinary event of a holy God manifesting Himself to His fallen creatures in order to redeem us and reconcile us to Himself.  In order for our sin debt to be paid, God’s holiness demanded a sinless, perfect substitute to die in our place to pay that debt.  The only sinless, perfect substitute is God.  In order for God to die, He would have to become human.  For God to come into this world in the manner in which He designed for mankind to procreate, God would have taken on the sin nature of Adam, and He would have ceased to be sinless.  He would have ceased to be God.  Christ’s birth demanded exactly what God ordered: that the Son of God would be born of a virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit.  In this way, Christ was totally divine and at the same time totally man.  Deity and humanity met in the womb of a virgin.  Never had there been a person born of a virgin until Christ came into this world.  
 
This never repeated miracle was necessary for you and I to be able to live extraordinary lives – lives lived in the realm of the spiritual, lives not stuck in the natural or the normal.  Even though we may take the step that makes us “partakers of the divine nature”; 1 Corinthians 3 shows we can still fall short of God’s perfect plan for us and live in the realm of the normal.  Those verses refer to this type of living as “carnal”.  Normal living is living for self.  We are told in Scripture this kind of living is unfulfilling.  I don’t want to live that way. 
 
Often when we think of miracles, our thoughts focus on the spectacular. We are prone to bask in the magnificence of it.  As I reflect upon our Lord’s Incarnation, it strikes me that this miraculous event where God comes to earth is shrouded in a covering that is unpretentious.  The eternal God limited His divine attributes, limiting Himself within the confines of a human body.  God comes into this world in a very humble setting as a baby dependent upon parents to provide His basic needs.  Throughout His life Jesus is dependent upon God to meet His basic needs.  He explained to His disciples, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head”.  When we read the Gospels we see the humility of our Lord on each page.  We constantly see obedience to the Father and His unconditional love for others.  In Philippians 2 we are told that we are to have the same mind and attitude as Christ.  There it outlines that Jesus limited His divine attributes and “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. 
 
What about you and me?  Do we have the mind of Christ?  Serving others, putting others before ourselves, yielding our rights, setting aside our agenda and aspirations to do the will of God are foolishness to the natural man.  To live like Christ is a miracle.  It requires daily yielding ourselves to the supernatural indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Too many times we are unwilling to yield.  So we trudge along trying to live the Christian life in our own power, and do not experience the power of God in our lives. We are existing. We are playing church.  We are living in the normal.  I don’t want to live there.  I don’t want to play church.  I don’t want to get comfortable in this world.  I want to make a difference in people’s lives.  I want my life to count for God.  I want the same for you.  Will you strive with me to step out of the mundane, the normal, and experience the “miracle” of a life totally surrendered to God?
 
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