One Normal Night

They're creepy, and they're kooky,

Mysterious and spooky,

They're altogether ooky,

The Addams Family.

(First verse of The Addams Family Lyrics by Vic Mizzy)

I took my wife to the local theater the other night to see The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy. Whenever the show's reruns aired (the show went off the air the year I was born), I watched it. It quickly became one of my childhood favorite shows.

For those who are not aware, the show is about a close-knit family with macabre interests. They are not evil but are unique, as you can tell from the first verse of the song describing them. The parents, Gomez and Morticia, hold onto a passionate love for each other that rivals anything in any other production. The family is friendly and hospitable to others despite the reactions to their peculiar way of life.

In the play, there is a scene where the daughter, Wednesday, and her boyfriend, Lucas, sing a song to their parents. Since the families could not be any more different from each other, they asked the parents to act normal for one night.

Asking for one normal night poses a question. What is normal?

My family may not have macabre interests, but I can guarantee that ordinary to me is not normal for you. The statement is also accurate for you. Your standard may seem strange to me. Different ways do not mean either family is wrong. We are just different.

Even within my immediate family, normal is hard to define. My wife and I, though raised in the church, were still raised entirely differently. She finds some of the things I do baffling at times, and I wonder why she does the things she does. After a quarter of a century of marriage, we still wonder why the other person does what they do. It does not change our love for each other.

Society expects people to act normally, but who defines what normal is?

In a society where people are no longer attending church regularly, scheduling things on a Sunday has become the norm. However, my routine is to attend church whenever my work schedule allows. Lately, that has not been enough for me, though I will try to listen to online services when I can’t attend.

We pick and choose what we think normal should be and hold others up to our standards. We judge those that do not meet our usual expectations. It may not be intentional, but it happens. We may not even verbalize it, but we think it. If you ever thought, “Why would they do that?” you have judged them.

We should never judge others by their action. We do not think alike. We do not act alike. We are individuals. God created us to be in his image not in the likeness of each other.

I have certain traits that I have either inherited or learned from my dad. My siblings have the same dad but may have acquired different characteristics from him. All of my siblings have some things in common, but none of us are identical.

The same is true for everyone else in the world. It even holds for those with whom we attend church. We have the same heavenly father but have different traits.  Some may look at things from a teaching perspective while others look at things from a serving perspective. God did not create us to be like everyone else. He created everyone to be who he created them to be. He made us all unique.

So, what is normal? Whatever you usually do is normal to you. In whatever manner you typically think is normal to you. Do not hold me to your standard of normal. I won’t keep you to mine.

I always hear that diversity is a good thing. If that is the case, why do we want everyone to be like us?

Romans 14:12-13 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.