Reprinted from a devotional by Richard L. Floyd
"Behold I make all things new!" - Revelation 21:5 Thirteen years ago my life changed forever in an instant when I flew over the handlebars of my bicycle and landed on my head. Like Humpty Dumpty I "couldn't be put back together again." The name for my new situation is traumatic brain injury (TBI), the injury so many of our troops return with from war. Everyone's TBI is different, but all share the family traits of neurological deficits and behavioral changes that are challenging for both the one who has them and for the loved ones who must deal with them. As I was trying to stay afloat in these new uncharted waters, my thoughtful neuropsychologist, Sarah, threw me a lifeline with the term "new normal." She said, "Don't compare how you are today with how you were before the accident. Compare how you are today with how you were after the accident. That's your new normal." One of my disabilities is an impaired "executive function," the part of the brain that allows one to multi-task. Sarah told me, "Before your accident you could probably cook dinner, talk to your wife, and listen to NPR all at the same time. Now pick one." So I have learned how to do one thing at a time. Sometimes I get very frustrated by this, especially if I compare myself to before my injury, but measured by my new normal, I can see improvement. This idea of new normal has been so helpful to me that I have begun to think about it as a metaphor for the life of faith. Since my injury I have been paying attention to the word "new" wherever I come across it in our faith. Scripture is full of it: the Revelation passage above is just one of countless verses where "God is doing a new thing." And our hymnody is also full of allusions to the new: "morning by morning new mercies I see" and "new every morning is the love." These phrases carry so much emotional power for me. They remind me that ours is a God of new starts, second chances, the God who raised Jesus from the dead. And you don't have to have a disability to benefit from thinking about your "new normal." The everyday bumps and shocks of life set us all back at times, and the aging process will in time diminish our capabilities. But this God of the new is never done with us, even in the face of death. So what's your new normal? Prayer God of the Exodus and the Resurrection help us to see and know the new things you are doing in us and in the world around us. Keep us from discouragement about the things we can longer do, and let us be grateful for the things we can.
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Melanie Stanley-Soulen pastored Allen-Lee United Methodist Church from 2007 until 2013. Archives
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