Over the weekend I was catching up with a sweet friend of mine. We started talking about incidents (great or small) that change your life in ways you never guessed they would or could. I hadn’t seen her since I had broken my leg and had surgery so I shared the story with her. I told her how surprised I was by how the experience was not only changing my physical capabilities for the time being, but it was changing me. It was changing my mentality, messing with my emotions, and changing my heart. I told her, “It’ll be ok. I just have to get through another week or so and I’ll be back to walking and things will get back to normal.” Every time I would say those words I was trying to convince myself they were true; however, something had me feeling slightly skeptical.

I wasn’t expecting to hear what my friend told me next. She explained that sometimes, maybe you aren’t meant to go back to “normal.” Sometimes you have to stop thinking, ‘once I get to that point, then I’ll be fine.’ Sometimes you have to accept that maybe you were just meant to change altogether.

That was it. God was changing me through my experience.

She shared with me how she walked through this lesson when her dad died several years ago. She kept telling herself that she just had to get through the next thing and then the next thing and then she’d be fine. That went on for a few years until one day she had to accept that maybe God wanted her to have a new normal and maybe she was meant to be changed by the loss of her dad, whom she loved so dearly.

The gravity of her scenario was obviously much greater than anything I’ve experienced and I certainly don’t mean to imply otherwise, but she continued to share her wisdom and taught me that sometimes we go through traumatic situations (whether they are slightly traumatic or incredibly traumatic) in order for our lives to be carefully crafted by the hands of God. These situations bring us closer to God and allow us to draw focus on what is most important in life.

Are you struggling to get back to “normal” in some fashion in your life? Why are you resisting the change? Perhaps you aren’t meant to go back to who you were, but rather to move forward as the person you are becoming. Embrace your new normal.