made new...

This morning I had breakfast with a high school student. He’s a super cool kid, incredibly athletic, intelligent, social, confident, and in general a lot of fun to be around. But every time I connect with him I leave feeling about the same; excited, frustrated, heart broken and yet hopeful.

See this kid is completely normal on the outside, he looks normal, acts normal, and gives the appearance of being your average high school boy who, if anything, I would guess has a better life that most.

But as I hear his story I realize how wrong my assumptions can be. How different things can be beyond the surface. See his little secret is that he parents are divorced, nothing new there, because his Dad left his mom for someone else, a male someone else. The first time I heard this I took a double take and immediately started telling myself to watch my nonverbal communication, a.k.a. pick my jaw up. This is so different for me, this “normal” kid lives life like every other divorced student in this world, spending time with one parent and then the other, except instead of having a step mom he has an extra step dad. But it’s normal to him; it’s nothing big; it’s just life. His father’s partner is just his other dad; it’s completely normal.

It’s just life.

How many people live a “it’s just life” life?

How many people if we took the time to actually stop and listen would share their “it’s just life” life. How many stories would we hear of pain, shame, guilt, regret, heartache, disappointment, fear, resentment, etc.

But “it’s just life” we say

I can’t believe that the “it’s just life” lives have to be real life, normal life, I have to believe that the world can change, that my world can change, that your world can change, that what has been does not always have to be.

I have to believe that when God says “I make all things new” that he really can.

But what is new?

Is “new” for this student having his mom and dad fall back in love, professing their unbreakable commitment to each other and allowing him to have the idyllic Normal Rockwell life?

Is “new” my friends getting back together, saying they’re sorry for their selfish actions and making their marriage work?

Is “new” my grandfather being able to work without pain, my boss really understanding me, the cop excusing my ticket, the roof no longer leaking, cars working, spouses loving, kids minding, my coffee tasting perfect, life being perfect?

Just what is “new” cause God said he’s doing it, and it seems like something I will want.

Is this “new” the tangibles of life? The things I touch, taste, see. Or, is this “new” seen today in other ways, like attitudes, desires, the way we do life?

I don’t believe that God was promising to make everything in our lives perfect or how we wish them to be, but the hope that even though this world is broking and not as it was designed to be that one-day it will be right.

That one day this student will know unconditional love, that one day he will not have to play to silly games of divorce, that one day he will not have to feel the shame of telling friends about his dad’s lifestyle, that one day my grandpa will not hurt, that one day selfishness will not cut deep into our hearts, that one day we will be able to fully trust and enjoy spouses, that one day we won’t have leaking roofs, rude kids, bad coffee, or broken lives.

That one day, this world and life as we know it will be “made new” and the “it’s just life” will be what life was designed to be.

But until that day, as we live our “it’s just life” lives may we find the glimpses of where this world is being made new, may we find and celebrate where our lives are being made new, may we help those around us live in the newness to come and not the current brokenness found all around.

It’s just life, but it’ll be made new

Now that’s something I must believe