Okay, here is a quick 1, 2, punch! Stop comparing your life to everyone else’s around you, you are not them… YOU ARE UNIQUELY YOU! If I could challenge you with anything it would be to replace the word normal with the word healthy. “Is my relationship normal?” but listen to the difference when I say “Is my relationship healthy?” Do you hear the difference in connotation? The word normal is relative, broad, and impossible to truly define. “Is it normal to exercise as much as I do?” but ask yourself, “Is it healthy to exercise as much as I do?” In my experience no one on planet earth is “normal” and life is far from “normal.” What is important and what I am looking for when I interact with people is not normal, but healthy. Are their thoughts and behaviors healthy for them? Healthy is much simpler to define: healthy would be something that is beneficial to you as an individual. A healthy relationship for example will benefit you (unhealthy relationships bring you down). Healthy exercising will benefit you (unhealthy over-exercising is dangerous).What if we stopped aiming to be normal and began aiming to be healthy?
I find normal to be this abstract impossibility that everyone is striving for. Do you know what happens when we focus on the impossible? We develop depression and anxiety. We develop perfectionism (click for blog on this monster!). But healthy is within our grasp… we can be healthy in every area of life: physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually!
HEALTHY IS POSSIBLE!
Now, here’s the awesome part of living to be healthy and not normal (ugh, I really hate that word!)… YOU LEARN TO BECOME THE BEST VERSION OF YOU!!! At the start of this I demanded you to stop comparing yourself to everyone else around you! It was a ridiculous demand, I am fully aware, but only because you have been focused on normal because you have been raised and preached at about what is normal, abnormal, good, bad, weird, cool, etc. etc. The list of societal expectations of us are endless! But, if you learn to focus on what is HEALTHY for you, the cross-comparisons stop because you are forced to focus inwardly on yourself. You begin to heal in ways you never thought were possible. You will experience confidence, self-empowerment, a boost in self-worth! Aiming to make your life healthy brings change!
Listen, here is the truth. The terms society uses to label you are irrelevant. Society as a majority discounts how awesome God’s design is for you. God did not design you to be normal, cool, etc. NO! God designed you to fulfill a specific plan and purpose! “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jereamiah 1:5 I love this specific translation (NIV) because of the phrase I set you apart. This indicates God created you not to be normal but to be different! Normal isn’t a thing! Unique however is a thing and a really incredible honorable thing!
Here are some more power quotes and scriptures to back up this notion of being healthy, not normal!
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 John 1:2
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Proverbs 16:24
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:7-8
Health is an outfit that looks different on everybody – Odyssey
I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health – Kurt Voltaire
I hope you have been challenged to think about your goals in life and you are able to begin redirecting your focus to a healthy life instead of trying to be an impossible normal.
Healthy brings you freedom. Normal imprisons your soul.
