Are you normal or a rebel! What is considered normal, or rebellious these days?  Awhile back an acquaintance showed me a forwarded email he received from a friend titled, “Are you normal?”  He giggled a little because he had already taken this email test and failed.  This seemed to satisfy him and, in turn, aroused a disingenuous laugh on my part as I began to ponder what we really considered normal these days.

It appears more prevalent today that we delight far more in what was formerly considered bad behavior and defiance than what was traditionally considered good.   However, it’s striking to me that this new majority behavior is still routinely referred to in a goofy or light-hearted sort of way as if those engaging in it are somehow being rebellious against the norm, or being a little devilish, or outright bad.

Ironically, at the time, I worked as a Quality Supervisor in a warehouse facility where we specialized in shipping and receiving, as well as repairing dysfunctional automobile parts.  From a traditional godly or biblical perspective, the conversation in that facility was anything but quality as the norm was foul language, coarse joking, and pervasive talk about drinking and partying, as well as rampant pursuit of sex as sport and entertainment rather than anything meaningful beyond that.

While I never took an official poll, it seemed well over fifty percent of the women had children outside of marriage and continued to be sexually active.  Several had multiple children from multiple fathers and affectionately referred to these men as their “babies’ daddy.”  One girl’s shirt read, “Good girls are bad girls who haven’t been caught yet.”  Another girl’s shirt read, “Angel by Day, Naughty by Night.”

It’s amazing how we have reveled so much in swimming against the current of traditional moral values and in rebellion toward God that it has itself become the new societal norm.  In fact, no longer can those who practice cohabitation, sexual immorality, routine drunkenness and illicit drug use consider themselves radicals, but rather the guardians of cultural conformity.

Consider for a moment statistical data from the most recent national census which showed marriage and the traditional nuclear family at a desperately low rate representing only one-third of American households.   While soundly in the majority, co-habitation has skyrocketed, homosexuality and homosexual marriage is now Supreme Court approved and steadily rising, and divorce is the modern quick fix for minor disagreements and struggling marriages.

What further strikes me as odd anymore is that people still joke about being bad, or being a rebel when rebellion has become the cultural norm.  All they’ve really become is just like everyone else.  No flag planting here, just business as usual.

You could more easily argue that today’s rebel is a single person who is faithfully waiting for marriage to have sex, a married person faithful to their spouse, someone who doesn’t abuse drugs and alcohol, a clean vocabulary, and faithful to God and country.   Now this is rebellion indeed!

Those who try to live a life which is glorifying to God, or who are in pursuit of high moral standards are now soundly in the abnormal or radical category.  These are the true non-conformist and trailblazers.

While the majority of both men and women are out working overtime to prove how rebellious they are against traditional values; they are actually only in rebellion toward God, and most certainly not in rebellion to an American society that culturally has come to embrace anything but the biblical standard.  So pervasive has what was traditionally considered evil and sinful behavior become the norm, that it is no longer acceptable, or politically correct to define it as evil and sinful, but doing your own thing.

We are told by our educators and political elites that we must tolerate and embrace those we don’t agree with, even if their “normal” behavior is destroying our culture.  You can disagree with me if you like on this statement, but look around, we are the most miserable we’ve ever been.  It appears that in spite of all of our newfound freedom from the shackles of God and His laws, we are the most depressed and suicidal we’ve ever been.

In fact, the CDC reported that from 1999 to 2014, the suicide rate jumped 24% over that time period and in 2016, approximately 45,000 people ended their own lives, over twice the homicide rate.   Suicide is now the second leading cause of death in young people between the ages of 10 -34, in spite of not being morally accountable to anyone.

Perhaps in the midst of all of this education we could stop and consider these words from the book of Isaiah, chapter 5:20-24 (NIV):

‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

When sober, let us not be fooled into thinking this somehow only applied to Old Testament Jews and that somehow God is not consistent in dealing with his people.

For the New Testament has similar warnings as well.  Yes Jesus loves us, but He too, more than any other New Testament teacher warned that there would eventually be consequences.  Consider the following from the book of Matthew, chapter 24:4-12 (NIV):

⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

However, as we go on and do what we feel we must to not only express, but embrace our freedom from God and traditional Christian values, let us please not laugh and giggle anymore about our “rebellious behavior” because in reality, you’re normal, a conformist just like everyone else!

Join the true rebellion against conformity, follow Christ!