I am going on a mission trip to Mexico on Friday. There were several things that I needed to do to get my car ready for the trip. There was A/C that had a leak and replace a serpentine belt and a cracked windshield, The latter has been cracked for a while, like a couple of years. It was on the passenger side but was growing. Then one hot day last month I washed my car and as cold water hit the windshield the crack grew. It was not not only on the passenger side but came across to the driver's as well, and added a new vertical crack. It was time to replace it. Insurance might have helped but it cost $51 more than the deductible so not much point. So replace I did.
I had been driving for so long with the crack that I had become accustomed to it being there. It wasn't a hindrance, just always there. I wasn't a benefit, just always there. It was illegal according the Washington Law, but it was just always there. It wasn't supposed to be, but . . .. So the day I picked up the car and started home, It seemed odd that the crack wasn't there. I can't say it was any kind of problem, but I simply noticed, repeatedly, that it was not there, and it felt not quite right. I was used to that crack. I didn't have any strong attachment to it, but it was simply not there any more. It was the 'normal' view I become used to. I have since become accustomed to the new windshield, with no crack, but not for a few days.
As I thought about it, I likened it to our walk. At times, there are things in our lives that shouldn't be there. They are not huge thing (though could become so). They are not normally dangerous (but have the potential to become so). There are just there and shouldn't be. It is not that we don't know they're there. It is not like we want them there, they're just there. And we have become used to them.
Then comes the day when we chose to change things. Maybe we have been confronted about their presence. Maybe we finally decided enough is enough. Maybe the 'crack' suddenly get bigger and we need to do something before things get out of hand. Bottom line, things need to change. And so we change. Yet, when we do, things don't look, feel, or seem quite right. The 'crack' has been there so long that is has become normal, it is expected. And its not being there doesn't feel normal. We should be glad it is gone, and we genuinely are. And we may not even miss the 'crack,' Not really. but its not being there takes some getting used to. Too often, we return to the 'normal' that we have been experiencing instead of the new way God wishes us to live. We are comfortable with the old normal and not the new. At some point, the new will become the norm and life will go on, yet, for a moment we will miss that crack. We will be glad it is gone, and hopefully soon it is all but forgotten.