The question we should ask, then, is not when will we get back to normal but should we want to go back to normal? And the follow-up question: What should the new normal be? What if this crisis is a divine disruption that allows us to rethink ourselves, to rethink our lives, to reconsider our habits? 

Here’s a question that keeps coming up in conversation and online: when will things go back to normal?

It’s natural to long for normalcy during a trial that doesn’t seem to have an end date. If only we knew the future—if only we knew the specific dates when this trial would be over—we could fortify ourselves by looking ahead to that goal. Unfortunately, the aspect of a trial that makes it so, well, trying is that we don’t see as far ahead as we’d like. We don’t know how long it will last. That’s why it’s natural to want what was normal.

But the truth is, whatever will become “normal” on the other side of the coronavirus crisis will not be the old normal. It will be something new. We are not going back.

So here’s the question I hope we will begin to ask instead: Do we really want to go back to normal? Was the old normal good? Were we really flourishing in the old normal? Was the old normal spiritually healthy?

Old Normal

What was the old normal? A world with less and less in-person interaction, looser commitments, increasing polarization, and, above all, loneliness.

Read More