When Your Landscape Changes

Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Psalm 37:3 (NASB)

One spring, in the wee hours of the morning, Preston and I were jolted out of bed when lightning struck two huge pine trees in our backyard. 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 home went off simultaneously. 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 backyard. 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. Finally, a tree removal service came and took both trees 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 the backyard for over 6 hours. Last night as I looked out my back door, I realized that the landscape had completely changed. It will never be the same.  

I was reminded of times when the landscape of my life had completely changed. Memories flooded my mind. I am writing to you today not as one that has mastered the maneuvering of these events but as one that knows that they are inevitable. Landscape changes are unavoidable. 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 are exhausted. We justify. We mourn. We cry out! These are 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. Sometimes you really want to lie 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 a 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 struggling at this very moment. You have had a landscape change, or you’re begging God for one! (Be careful about what you beg.) I 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 be – 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 without 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, 

Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Psalm 37:3 (NASB)

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 that He is aware of our new landscape. Resting securely in Him, we can know and believe He is with us.

10. Then, one day, you will look around, and the landscape you live 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. 

Love you, Ladies!