By Laura Story

It would be better if we were still slaves in Egypt than about to die here in the wilderness.

This statement is so heartbreaking to me. Despite God’s show of power, Israel doubted his promise to bring them safely home. Rather than evaluating their current predicament based on what they had always held to be true about God, they changed their view based on their circumstances.

Ever been tempted to respond this way? Your bills are piling up, so you question whether God really is Provider. You’re chastised for your faith at work or school, and you wonder whether God really is Defender. You feel alone, and you wonder whether the God who promised never to leave or forsake you is really with you. To be human is to doubt.

And that was where the Israelites found themselves, allowing their circumstances to lessen their view of their God. They failed to see him as Rescuer. They failed to see him as all powerful. They failed to see him as faithful.

Now, I do want to give them some grace here. They had been living in a foreign culture for more than four hundred years. Perhaps their understanding of God had diminished over the generations. My sadness for Israel is genuine because I too can forget that God is faithful to his promises.

Fear often makes us lose sight of the great God who loves us and delivers us moment by moment.

The Israelites couldn’t dream big enough to imagine what God was about to do.

Look at your own life today. Consider its normal patterns that provide a sense of stability for you and your family. These aren’t bad at all. Routine allows us to avoid chaos, which seems always to be knocking at our doors. Life in a normal environment can foster a sense of love and appreciation in us. I know it does in me.

But if normal is our goal, our highest value—or to take it a little to the dark side, our addiction—we may very well miss the extraordinary work God has in store. Just like Israel, we may be choosing the bondage of normal over the promise of better things. Hard as it is to believe, freedom and deliverance, unlike anything we could imagine, often awaits if we will only trust the God who rescues.

What normal patterns are you unwilling to release? Are you remaining in an unhealthy relationship out of comfort or convenience? Have you been allowing areas of complacency or sin to remain, simply because they’ve become normalized? Are you partaking in actions or behaviors that are normal for the people around you when you know God’s been calling you to something different?

Often our idea of normal comes from our families of origin. We may have been raised to act or be a certain way. When asked, “Why do you do that?” our response is, “It’s the way we have always done it.” Or, maybe, “We have always believed this.”

Staying in normal for the sake of normal may be shortchanging the very purpose of your life—to embark on a journey with a delivering Savior who came to bring you new life!

Taken from “So Long, Normal” by Laura Story. Copyright 2021 by Laura Story. Used with permission from Thomas Nelson.

Laura Story is a worship leader, author, and award-winning Christian recording artist.