THIS IS MY NORMAL

I was raised by a talented, gregarious attorney and a passionate, intelligent preacher's daughter. These two people thought seriously about life, faith, family, current events, everything, and they talked about what was on their minds. Conversations around our dinner table each evening were animated, stimulating, intense. (Sometimes, they were downright hysterical.)

My siblings and I grew up thinking it was perfectly reasonable for family conversation to cover the gamut from whale songs to Caesar Augustus to evidence of God's sovereignty in our daily lives. We loved to talk about these things, to talk about everything. (We still do!) Growing up, this was my Normal.

But what about life outside the incubator? What about relationships with people outside the family nest?

My first truly-intimate, truly-significant non-relative friend was a girl named Jill. We met in sixth grade. Even in sixth grade, Jill's faith was an integral part of her regular conversation. She talked about what she believed, and she asked me what I believed, and why. She prayed out loud to Jesus when we walked together down the hall between classes - like she believed Jesus was right there and could actually hear her. Jill was my first best girlfriend...she was my Normal. (I love you, Jill. 💖)

Other dear friends danced in and out of my life over the years. Jane and David, Janet and Ned, Larry and Lisa, Cindy and Ken, Shaun and Shannon. Katherine, Donna, Teresa, Linda, MaryAnn, Jenny, Gayle, Melissa, Alice, Dustin, Joyce, Julie...too many beautiful saints to name! And then there is my new family - Steve, and the seven children God has given us, and the special people these children have added to the family circle. Such a kaleidoscope of personalities, life experiences, faith backgrounds!

Yet all these very-different people have one thing in common - they love to talk about the things about which they care passionately. Gardening, homeschool, books, yoga, family, horses, Boston, music, politics, beer, poetry, jiu jitsu, cheese. And they love to talk about the one thing that excites them more than anything else - Jesus. The Gospel. The implications of faith for daily life. These people, they have been and continue to be my Normal.

I guess every person on the planet has his own definition of "normal," and it makes sense that many of those normals vary greatly from my own. But I am truly thankful - to my parents, to my siblings, to my husband, to my children, to my friends, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially to God himself - for the Normal that has been handed to me.