Is there a "normal?"

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My hubby and I had some pretty awful things happen to us before we ever met, and things were just settling down again at the time we met. Especially because of what he had gone through in his life, I prayed that the Lord will give us some peace and quiet for a while.

And the Lord was kind enough to do that for us for two years and two days. Two days after our second anniversary, hubby broke his back. Not the kind of break that paralyzed him, but the kind of break that said, "You'll never go back to being an HVAC mechanic on the streets again."

Considering the kind of jobs I could do didn't pay enough for us to live on, it was definitely scary. But God worked out a bunch of stuff that always worked out that we had food and shelter. Still, it took us 3-5 years to work our way back up to middle-class again.

And all was good for a decade, before our life was topsy turvy again. One thing after another hit. (He did find heating work again, just not on the streets. He worked for the federal government on a base, and working for the federal government means safety first, so he couldn't do the reckless things he had to do on the streets that broke his back. And then we learned his base was closing in five years, but the government paid for him to learn a new skill, and he chose computer networking. Which would have worked out, if Novell had stayed the number one computer networking platform, but in the 13 months it took him to be certified, Novell went from 75% of all business networking systems to Microsoft winning that market, so half of what he learned was useless. Meanwhile, I started a home-base business, that had just become profitable, when gallstone colic turned into a permanently disabling pinched nerve in my back, at the same time the Y2K bug was being fixed by hundred's of thousands of computer techies, like hubby, and then there were hundreds of thousands of computer techies with no purpose to work anymore, and the computer filed couldn't support them all, just as three jets -- the fourth being crashed by passengers -- went through three well-known American buildings, which closed the skies for three days, putting many businesses to death, causing a recession, leaving that many more Americans out of work. And meanwhile, hubby got "three-day-flus" that we only discovered 18 months later, when we ran out of savings and retirement money, was Hepatitis C, so he had to go through 24 weeks of chemo right when we ran out of money. And, sure enough, 2% of people who go through chemo end up being disabled, and hubby is a 2%er.) And poof, we were back to broke, and three weeks from losing the house.

Sooo, we had to climb up from flat broke to not-middle-class anymore. But with God's grace, we did. And we were content.

Little blip for when hubby found out he had cancer ten years later. Little blip because it was a polyp on his kidney, and was frozen out, before we found out it was cancer.

But 14 months after that he had the massive heart attack.

And, last June he finally came home, and struggled to regain his strength and get back to usual.

After all this, we kind of thought this is life as believers. Something is always going to go wrong, and we'd need God to keep us together. And, truly we were content. This last year was great, as I watched him getting better and better. Truly content.

Then weird things started happening. Last week, he had a follow-up with his cardiologist. Something about his heart was supposed to be at 45%, but it was only 40-41% made all his doctors nervous. He was at 45% when he left the hospital, so this was something different, and not good. For the last year, every time he see his primary or his cardiologist, that meant he'd spend the next month getting one test or another. The last couple of months he had to go through quite a few tests, and the tests themselves took a toll on him, so we were expecting bad news.

Didn't happen. His heart is okay. Not great, but works well for a 70 year old. He doesn't have to see his cardiologist until December! He really is back to normal. This is causing quite a few
partying-smiley-emoticon-1.gif
in our lives.

And then this last weekend Ed and gang really fixed up our house in ways we just thought would never happen. Way more
partying-smiley-emoticon-1.gif


Soooo, is it normal for God to give good things after so long of bad things? Or, generally speaking, does God either bring mostly good things or mostly bad things?

I know we're not going to live forever, (although that's a good thing), and from past experience the dying part won't be easy, but we really were content -- knowing God was taking care of us. Just didn't ever expect God would do it at luxury levels ever again, and he has... TWICE in one week. I feel like I'm on our honeymoon again. I also tend to keep ducking, because surely something else tough has to happen soon.

Anyone know if this is how it works out for most? Or if the next shoe is going to drop? I forgot what normal is, and now that I see it again, it's both pleasing and odd.
 
I don't know, what is normal and what isn't. I think the normal way things are supposed to be is God blessing us all the time- but sin kind of wrecked what God meant for mankind, normally. So I think normal will be Heaven and life on Earth is always abnormal. Long story short, anytime anything bad happens is abnormal.

God bless you both, and God bless Ed and the gang for showing their brotherly love toward you and John.
 
To me, normal includes sickness and health, tears and laughter, loss and gain, war and peace, etc.

Ecclesiastes 3 talks about a time for every activity under heaven. All the things that make for a normal life here on earth.

I do not think it would be good or normal if God just blessed us all the time. Trials are meant to strengthen our faith and build our character, enlarge our capacity to have compassion for others and to even cause us to draw the grace needed from Christ. That is why we are told to count our trials as joy. This does not mean we have to "feel" joy, we just have to see the blessings that could derive from them.
 
I have wondered about this also. I believe normal is nothing more than an average of all things that occur. Like when I watch the Weather, and they tell me what the normal or average Temperature is for today. What they really do is add up all the data they have for a particular day and divide the total number by the number of days they added together. That becomes the normal or average Temperature for that day. The same with Monthly or Annual rainfall amounts. I can not remember seeing a day when it was actually the normal or average.

With people, are we not taught that we are all individuals, special, and not normal? We may experience similar actions or events or other things, share similar tastes and such, but we are all individuals. Even Identical Twins have measurable difference no matter how miniscule they may be.
 
To me, normal includes sickness and health, tears and laughter, loss and gain, war and peace, etc.

Ecclesiastes 3 talks about a time for every activity under heaven. All the things that make for a normal life here on earth.

I do not think it would be good or normal if God just blessed us all the time. Trials are meant to strengthen our faith and build our character, enlarge our capacity to have compassion for others and to even cause us to draw the grace needed from Christ. That is why we are told to count our trials as joy. This does not mean we have to "feel" joy, we just have to see the blessings that could derive from them.
I got to expecting the trials. The blessings have knocked my socks off. (Okay. Warm enough I don't need socks anyway. lol) This much of a good thing all at once is what's shocking me.
 
since post isn't here, i brought you a sine wave to indicate normal. :cool:

serveimage

 
11COR. 5:17.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.

this is the New Normal, the past normal is totally dysfunctional...but, the New Normal
takes a while to get used to and also a while to change and understand/obey Jesus' Ways...
 
I got to expecting the trials. The blessings have knocked my socks off. (Okay. Warm enough I don't need socks anyway. lol) This much of a good thing all at once is what's shocking me.

BECAUSE of all the trials, your socks are knocked off now by the blessings. Seems like blessings need trials so that they can be seen as blessings. Otherwise, how would we recognize the blessings when they come?

Glad for you - you deserve this good time. Enjoy.
 
since post isn't here, i brought you a sine wave to indicate normal. :cool:

serveimage

(61 years old, and now I wonder if I might be missing something because science and math were never my forte'.)

orrrr

Huh? Which is the sine wave -- flat line or wavy line? lol
 
11COR. 5:17.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.

this is the New Normal, the past normal is totally dysfunctional...but, the New Normal
takes a while to get used to and also a while to change and understand/obey Jesus' Ways...
The history I gave was only during my New Creature phase. I consider my Old Creature phase the prologue on why the New Creature needed/needs to happen.
 
BECAUSE of all the trials, your socks are knocked off now by the blessings. Seems like blessings need trials so that they can be seen as blessings. Otherwise, how would we recognize the blessings when they come?

Glad for you - you deserve this good time. Enjoy.
I'm still expecting banana creme pie as the beginning for your knock-your-socks-off phase. (I love chocolate, just not chocolate creme -- as in pies, pudding, or mousse -- if you wonder why I focus on banana creme. lol)
 
(61 years old, and now I wonder if I might be missing something because science and math were never my forte'.)

orrrr

Huh? Which is the sine wave -- flat line or wavy line? lol

right? :D

i think that's why they added the arrow. lol
 
I am not sure what normal is myself. Only know to trust God to bring us through the storms. God knows what He is doing as I dont! I kinda feel lost outside of society where my situation does not fit into a box! The only thing to do through a storm or fog for a ship, is to plough straight through. Keep an eye on the compass so one does not go adrift, and keep heading forward.
The weather comes and goes. Good times come and go. Winds, rain, storms of life... Everything in its season. The strongest trees are the weathered ones that can cope with any storm. The trees that have lived a lifetime in ideal conditions are the first to break or fall over when a disaster comes yet the weathered tree remains.