A Full and Busy Life Equals a Normal Life

This month, we said goodbye to my husband’s brother. He had been living in a nursing home for six years as the effects of Parkinson’s disease¹ relentlessly diminished his ability to move, to care for himself, and even to speak. We were thankful for his peaceful acceptance of his distressing circumstances, but it was heartbreaking to hear him say, “I just wish I could get up and do something.”

In our busy lives, it’s hard to imagine what it would feel like to have our world shrink to the size of a single room and all our functions of daily life being performed by others. When I’m tempted to complain about how busy I am, I’ve started reminding myself that a full and busy life equals a normal life. With this mindset, the full calendar, the tedious tasks, and the detail overload become undeniable gifts:

• How wonderful that I get to push a vacuum cleaner through my whole house!
• What grace that I can drive myself to the busy grocery store, choose all my own purchases, and then carry them into the house!
• It’s practically a miracle that anyone ever emails me. How amazing that my email inbox fills up and needs to be sorted through every day!

The garlic drying in the furnace room, the beets that need to be harvested, the apples that need picking and preserving, and the weight of studying I need to do in the coming days are all reminders that I have a life!

When I’m tempted to complain about how busy I am, I’ve started reminding myself that a full and busy life equals a normal life. With this mindset, the full calendar, the tedious tasks, and the detail overload become undeniable gifts.

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A Sister’s Reflections on Disability, Faith, and Love

In what is likely her most vulnerable book, Norris tracks her own story alongside her sister’s, sharing both the sweetness of their interactions and the ever-widening chasm between the author’s wide and wonderful normal life and Rebecca’s inability to hold a job, find romantic love, or live independently.²

Rebecca Sue offers the gift of shared experience and understanding to family members dealing with mental health challenges. In telling her sister’s story, Norris’s lyrical prose is woven through with spiritual insights that bring wisdom and hope to what can seem like an impossible situation.

Norris concludes, “I believe that there are many circumstances in which praising and giving thanks means that we’re not clinging to what we wanted but accepting what life has handed us. It’s not positive thinking or looking on “the bright side.” It’s a realism that can endure deep darkness and detect the grace that exists even in distressing circumstances. It’s up to us to recognize grace and open our hearts to receive it.”

The presence of God in the midst of the daunting obstacles that come with a disability is a great consolation and evidence of God’s provision—even in the wilderness.

In what is likely her most vulnerable book, Kathleen Norris offers the gift of shared experience to families dealing with mental health challenges. Her lyrical prose is woven through with rich spiritual insights. @ivpress

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What Other Reviewers Are Saying

“Rebecca Sue is a profoundly moving tribute to the resilience of family and the beauty of unguarded love. Kathleen Norris takes us into the heart of her sister Rebecca’s world with sensitivity, courage, and insight, offering a deeply human story that resonates with both struggle and grace. This book is a remarkable testament to the sacred bonds that sustain us through life’s most profound challenges.” — John Swinton, professor in practical theology and pastoral care at the School of Divinity, History, and Philosophy at King’s College at the University of Aberdeen

“Kathleen Norris has always written with embodied, honest, human faith. In Rebecca Sue, Norris brings her insight into the human condition to her relationship with her disabled younger sister. The result is an invitation for all readers to discover their own humanity and to glimpse the hidden hand of God in all things.” — Amy Julia Becker, author of To Be Made Well and A Good and Perfect Gift

Holding You in the Light,

1. Regular readers will note that my brother-in-law’s decline has been providing me with a rather unwelcome “preview of coming attractions.” Even in this, God is good, because nothing fuels the fight like a clear view of the enemy. I remain committed to my exercise regimen, and so far, I’m functioning almost as fully as any other 63-year-old. ↩︎
2. Reader, please note that Rebecca Sue includes mentions and descriptions of the effects of sexual assault and abuse, compulsive sexual behavior, disability, mental illness, medical issues, and death. ↩︎

A New YouVersion Devotional!

I’ve got a new devotional plan ready for you on the YouVersion app. Click HERE to start The Meaning and the Method of True Rest, a ten-day plan that I pray will encourage and challenge you to seek intimacy with God every day.

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Many thanks to InterVarsity Press for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.