What is normal?

This is a question I used to ask people when they said I wasn't normal. "What is normal?" Now, I ask myself that question in regards to my own life. I am an alien living in a foreign land that is learning about how they live here. Yet, I am still an outsider and feel that I will always be such. Is normal going to the store and asking, "How much is it?" or "Ohl man eye oh?" When you meet someone, do you bow and say, "Anyanghasayo." or do you shake hands as you say, "Hello."? Do you eat using a spoon and fork, or a spoon and chopsticks? What is normal? In this new land, normal is continually changing. Here I feel like a king because I am paid in the millions. A half-liter Pepsi costs one thousand. Everyone looks at us like we are movie stars. Many people look, laugh, and whisper to each other as we pass by. Others will come up to us to practice the little bit of English that they know. We always have people looking at us. When we go back to the states to visit, what will normal be? What will life be like there, even if for just a short time? Will we remember how to drive a car? Here we walk, ride a bus, a subway, or take a taxi. As we work here, things are changing there in the states also. It's hard imagining how different everything will be when we visit the states. It's hard imagining how long God will have us stay here in Korea. Is normal going to visit North Koreans to teach them English at a processing facility before they are integrated into society? Or is normal witnessing and preaching on the streets in Oklahoma? I don't know what normal really is. So, I will ask you, "What is normal?"

Normal is such a strange word. Nothing is really normal when you are trying to follow God. Normal to God and normal to the world are two totally different things. I went to a conference recently and the speaker made the following statement, "When I want to see what God's will is in any certain situation, I think about what would I do naturally, then I know I should probably do the opposite." Our natural man is so opposed to the ways of God that this statement is totally true. Just look at the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus makes statements like, "you have heard and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, But I say to you, 'Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Jesus also said, "You have heard that is was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.'" This goes totally against what most people would consider normal behavior. However, it is the way of God. I guess the final question is, "Do you want to be normal, or abnormal?" Those I know who have followed God at all costs were definately abnormal people according to the world's definition. I pray that at the end of my life, people will remember my family and I as abnormal people.