Normal these days looks like road rage on the freeway, worry as a hobby, and incessant scrolling like it’s a spiritual gift. It’s snapping at waiters, grumbling about politics, and living exhausted, anxious, and perpetually offended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jesus didn\u2019t come to make us normal. He came to make us new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Matthew 5, He throws normal right out the window. \u201cBlessed are you when people insult you\u2026 rejoice and be glad.\u201d Rejoice? When people are lying about me? When the world goes sideways? That\u2019s not normal. That\u2019s heavenly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We weren\u2019t saved to blend in. We were called to stand out. To live like citizens of a better Kingdom where love, mercy, and truth are our native language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re the ones who take the high road — even when it\u2019s uphill and under construction. We smile when it makes no sense. We bless when others curse. We show up with casseroles and compassion. We don\u2019t just go to church — WE ARE the church!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are:
Lovingly different \u2013 loving the hard-to-love, the never-gonna-love-you-back, and yes, even the person who took the last piece of pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truthfully different \u2013 not with snark, but with steady, grace-filled truth that anchors us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mercifully different \u2013 giving second chances like God gives breath\u2014 freely and often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prayerfully different \u2013 choosing knees over noise, believing God hears and answers because He promised He would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This kind of living isn\u2019t always easy — but it is extraordinary. And when the world says \u201cWhy are you like this?\u201d we can smile and say, \u201cBecause of Who I belong to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So no, we\u2019re not normal. Not even close. And that\u2019s the best news of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Come on, friend. Let\u2019s take the high road together. The view\u2019s better up here anyway!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Normal these days looks like road rage on the freeway, worry as a hobby, and incessant scrolling like it’s a spiritual gift. It’s snapping at waiters, grumbling about politics, and living exhausted, anxious, and perpetually offended. But Jesus didn\u2019t come to make us normal. He came to make us new. In Matthew 5, He throws…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1210,1769,1392,267,40,17652,27007,8066,26994,32010,17718,10965,17650,27008],"class_list":["post-22344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-facebook","tag-faith","tag-inspiration","tag-lovingly-different","tag-mercifully-different","tag-normal","tag-not-normal","tag-prayerfully-different","tag-rejoice-and-be-glad","tag-stand-out","tag-take-the-high-road","tag-truthfully-different"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22346,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22344\/revisions\/22346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}