When the Landscape Changes
Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Psalm 37:3 (NASB)
Yesterday was a big day at the Nix household. This past spring in the wee hours of the morning, Preston and I were jolted out of bed when a bolt of lighting struck two huge pine trees in our back yard. It lit the room as if we had turned on the overhead light. It shook the house down to its foundation violently. The electrical charge was so intense that every fire alarm in the house went off at the same time. We ran through the house checking to see if we had a fire and turning off appliances that had taken a surge and turned themselves on. Then our attention turned to the back yard. There stood our two trees stripped of their bark. Quite literally, the bark had been blown off of the largest tree. The yard was littered with debris.
We watched over the summer as both trees turned brown and died. Yesterday, those trees were taken down. Watching the men work to bring down these two huge (65 feet tall) trees was quite the experience. When they hit the ground the impact was so significant that it literally shook the foundation of our two story home. They cut-up, picked up and cleaned up the back yard for over 6 hours. Last night as I looked out my back door I realized that the landscape has completely changed. It will never be the same.
I was reminded of times that the landscape of my life had completely changed. Memories flooded my mind. I hope that I have learned some lessons from those times. I am writing to you today not as one that has mastered the maneuvering of these events but from one that knows that they are inevitable. Today, I share a small portion of what our Abba has taught me and how you too can maneuver the change of your own landscape. Because landscape changes are inevitable. They will come.
First, there is the event itself. Landscape changing events impact us with such force that they shake us to our very core. Every aspect of life is affected. We are in shock. We are numb. We can react. We act. We wonder. We question. We cry out! The aforementioned is just a sampling of the feelings, thoughts and actions during the initial impact of a landscape changing event.
As the days follow you begin to feel the impact of the life change and you know that you must take steps to walk through the process of change. Honestly, there are times that you really want to lay down and die or just disappear. Fade into the background and pretend that this isn't happening. But for those of us who love the Lord - we get up. Maybe slowly but we get up and we start down the road of living in the place where the landscape looks completely different than we ever thought it would. In Psalm 37 David wrote concerning trusting the Lord amidst landscape changing days.
Maybe you are a ministry wife and you are struggling at this very moment. You have had a landscape change or your begging God for one!(Be careful for what you beg.) I just want to remind you that He knows where you are. When the landscape of your ministry looks completely different than what it has been or what you thought it would - remember - (I repeat)
He knows where you are.
When you find that your landscape has changed unexpectedly:
1. Breathe deeply and exhale long. Do it again and again and again.....(there are times that initially just breathing is the only thing you can do)
2. Find a close friend - Make yourself accountable to this person.
3. Get still before the Lord - listen - pray with out ceasing. Cry out to Him! Ask your
Abba Daddy God to speak through His Word.
4. Stay in His Word. - it will take effort but it's vital.
5. Assess the differences in your landscape. What stayed the same? What's changed?
6. Take your next steps slowly and wisely. You're in different terrain - When you are weary - stop and rest.
7. Never compare your landscape with someone else's.
8. Keep taking steps - Decide you will love God no matter what.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.
7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;....
Psalm 37:4-7 (NASB)
Finally,
9. Live in the new landscape and cultivate faithfulness. The Word for "cultivate" literally means that we are "to feed securely" on faithfulness. We can know that while we don't understand the change in the landscape - you and I can and should rest securely in the fact that He is aware of our new landscape. Resting securely in Him we can know and believe He with us.
10. Then one day you will look around and the landscape you are living in will feel as if you've been there forever and
He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. (Job 8:21 NLT) These are the top 10 lessons I have learned during the ever changing landscape of my life. Do you have any of your own? I would love to hear them. Join in on our
devotional page for a public comment or sign in and I'll meet you in the
forums to discuss your landscape change and how our
Abba is speaking to your heart.
Love you Ladies!
Diane Nix is director and founder of Contagious Joy. She is the spiritual mom of two grown daughters. (Kasia 32 & Courtney 30) The birth mom of two miracle daughters - one college freshman Rebekah and one 15 going on 20 Rachel. She and her professor/pastor husband, Dr. Preston Nix, have served in ministry for 30 years. She speaks and teaches whenever the Lord gives her opportunity. Gratefully acknowledging that He has plucked her out of her birth family mire in order to share HIS LOVE!
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