I can’t wait for things to get back to normal. How many times a week do you say this? I say or think it multiple times a week, especially during the summer when the kids are supposed to be at camps, activities, and the splash park. Instead of running around busy, we’re sitting at home (literally in the house because it’s too hot to be outdoors) and enjoying a lot of screen time and each other’s company. I can’t help but wonder if God has a lesson for me in there about slowing down, but honestly, I’ve been pushing that thought out of my mind. While I’ve been having this yearning to get back to my ‘normal’ life, maybe God is telling me that my normal was not the normal he had in mind for me. Maybe this pandemic has been a way to sort of shake us all out of our ‘normal’ and bring us to a new normal.

When looking for things to get back to normal, we are very focused on controlling the world around us, being able to go to the store without a mask on, taking the kids in to play at Chick-fil-A, etc. Think about trying to create a new normal interiorly. We can’t control the outward normal around us, but we can control our inward normal, and this is a new normal that we can be striving for during these days at home.

The deacon at our parish said during a homily, “God calls us through discomfort.” This pandemic has certainly caused a lot of discomfort, but I truly believe God is using it to shake up our lives a little. Maybe the lesson is teaching us to slow down a little bit, maybe to rely on him more than on human structures. We might all take some time to discern what God might be calling us to—both through the discomfort of the pandemic and the disruption these times have caused in our daily lives and in the structures we rely on so much.