Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Genesis 5:22b-24
I wonder what Enoch’s life looked like in comparison to the lives of those around him. I can’t imagine it was seen as normal for his day. Of course, as we read Scripture, we know another “abnormal” man’s story was told in the very next chapter—Noah. He built this huge ark on land, after all. What’s normal about that?
Sin, however, so permeates mankind and culture that those who actually know God, who walk with God, who do what he says, are seen as weirdos and outcasts. In the case of Noah, though, the outcast was saved, while the majority perished.
Does the fear of appearing abnormal keep us from following God? Don’t let it. Those who tried to blend in with the world didn’t do well. Remember the story of Lot, who chose the best-looking land and moved into the party-city of Sodom? We should all be leery of desiring to so fit in that fire and brimstone head our way.
All the real argument about religion turns on the question of whether a man who was born upside down can tell when he comes right way up. The primary paradox of Christianity is that the ordinary condition of man is not his sane or sensible condition; that the normal itself is an abnormality. That is the inmost philosophy of the Fall.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.
The only reason we live in the paradox Chesterton mentions is because the original plan got messed up in the Fall. Our normal is normal in a world ruled by God, but in the world governed by the Prince of Darkness, we are now the abnormal ones who pay the price of ridicule and attack like Noah. That’s alright, though, because we know things will soon be turned back right again.
Pray for the Lord to give you continued strength to live your abnormal lifestyle in a world turned upside down, until the day of Christ’s return.
Grace and Peace