Lofland bLOG

All of the people that I used to think were crazy have pretty much disappeared, and all of the people that I used to think were normal have gone crazy, and all of the people that I used to think were weird have gone normal on me.

“Perfectly normal human beings . . . you know what stinkers they are!”

I know I thought they were weird before, but normal is worse. Of course, it is hard to be anything but normal these days, because everyone is trying to be different. So just trying to be different makes you normal. “Counter-culture” IS culture, and the “emerging church” is becoming “the church” and soon we’ll have to have an unmerging church, or submerging church or something like that just so we can get out of this stinking normal thing.

To come to the point. Being a whacked out fundamentalist stinks, but at least it is different. Going from that to just “doing what everyone else is doing” is kind of a let down. I mean, yeah, it is cool at first to listen to cool music, wear shorts, talk to members of the opposite sex, and just generally not think God hates you 24×7. However, after a while, you just become one of the crowd. Most of the other “wild and crazy” things you can do are just what everyone else is doing. At least being a whacked out fundamentalist got you some strange looks. Listening to punk rock, having green hair and getting your body pierced don’t even attract a sneer anymore.

So what sets us apart? Before we were set apart as Christians by all of the things we didn’t do. We figured out real quick (or real slowly) that that was stupid, but then we just kind of melted into the crowd. So what sets us apart as Christians, or even as the people of God?

Then again, maybe it is just pride that seeks to “be different” and “stand out in the crowd.” Certainly a lot of us found pride in standing out in the crowd for our convictions.

Anyway, it still stinks that all of my weird fundy friends are just going normal. Some of them even think they are being “crazy” but they are just acting like normal people their age. How terribly boring.

Remember, “normal” is just a setting on your dryer.
Posted 1/11/2007 8:07 AM

4 Comments:

Venturing into the land of “ThinkingOnTheEdge”…what a good read! I’ll have to work my way back through the old posts.
Posted 1/11/2007 2:51 PM by jonathan_camenisch

As someone said so profoundly on their blog “I was uncool before it was cool to be uncool”.
Posted 1/12/2007 8:48 AM by Krash2Fly

Ah, you can still get some pleasure from “being crazy” if you go to a Baptist church. But yeah, you pretty well hit the nail on the head with this one. Normal is boring. So I think that what we should have that nobody else does, is an awesome relationship with God. That’s not exactly normal, sadly enough, and certainly not boring =).
Posted 1/12/2007 8:54 AM by madhatterb78

Yeah, I don’t have ABS either…keeps driving a lot more exciting up here in the north I’d done some sliding in parking lots before, usually on purpose, and often in reverse (it takes some thought to break only the back wheels loose when you have front-wheel drive), so I did know how to enjoy it, after I realized there wasn’t anything to hit and I couldn’t pull out of it.
Posted 1/19/2007 4:27 PM by madhatterb78