The Pulpit Speaks: September 23, 1961

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

“At midday,O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven, aboveth the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.” – Acts 26:13

WHAT IS NORMAL?

Today we think in terms of norms. Everything is judged in terms of normal behavior. We have set up a pattern which constitutes normal behavior on all levels and in all areas of human activity.

Anyone who does not behave within the realm of this patter is considered abnormal or subnormal. This term “norm” leaves no latitude for behavior over and above that which man has endorsed as normal behavior. Therein lies the tragedy.

Some of the greatest men of history have been those who gave no consideration to those things which have been labeled normal. They were motivated by those forces that have given to their lives new meaning and objectivity. The term “normal, as laid down by the modern day psychologist, is too exclusive. It leaves too much unsaid, too much unaccounted for.

PAUL’S TESTIMONY

Paul the Apostle, when called before King Agrippa, said, “At midday, O King, I saw a light from heaven that out shone the sun.” In other words, he said “something happened to me.” That which had happened was unexplainable in terms of known laws. This same thing happens to men daily. Something always happens to us that cannot be explained. We do things that we cannot explain. All that we know is that these things do occur.

There must come a time in each of our lives when something must happen to us. We must be able to move from the “norm” of things and do things that will defy explanation in terms of the thinking of our best friends or bitterest enemies.

Agrippa had only seen Paul as the murderous Saul. He knew Paul as one going about belching out bitterness and contempt against the Christians. Then one day, Paul comes up defending the cause of the Christians. Agrippa was at a loss for an explanation.

So it is with us. Sometimes we cannot even explain our own actions. The most common way most of us explain it is in the terms of Paul: something has happened to us. This something should and must happen to all of us. Man is only able to reach his noblest heights when something really happens to him.

GREAT LIGHT

A great light must come into each of our lives. We must see ourselves as we have never seen ourselves before. We must come to conclusions that will provoke us to heights heretofore unrealized. Only to this extent will our lives be what they should be. Something must happen to each of us which will turn us around and make of us new creatures. This, in short, is a definition of “conversion.” What happened to Paul on this particular occasion goes down in history as his conversion – his turning point.

It is at this point that we start doing things that are strange and unexplainable. If someone were to ask Dr. Albert Schweitzer “why Africa?” he would not be able to explain. If someone were to ask Florence Nightingale “why?” or Louis Pasteur “why?” or countless other men and women “why?” they would not be able to explain it in the terms of modern “norms” why they behaved so abnormally.

It was some unexplainable thing that has gripped them, to the extent that they have lost control of themselves, and gone on in the face of persecution, tribulation, and the like, to work for that which lures them on to nobler and higher heights. This is what conversion did for Paul. This is what it should do for each of us. Only when this really happens will we ever be worthwhile.

NOBLER LIVES

There must be something deeply seated in each of us that will make for nobler living and higher goals. There must be something that sends us out into the hedges and highways in search of those who are lost. There must be something that makes each of us want to live a life that will challenge all who come about us to strive toward that which will make us dare to stand and face all obstacles. When these things take place in our lives – when something really happens to us as individuals – we, like Paul, will be able to go out and challenge the world for greater worthwhileness. But this must happen to us as individuals. Each one of us must know that at midday, something happened to us that remolded our entire lives. This for the Christian is imperative!