Hallelujah, the locusts are gone!

Yesterday, I was out walking my dog and enjoying the gorgeous fall day that God granted us Texans.  Along my walk, I noticed there was an abundance of grasshoppers.  Now, I live out in the country so I see a lot of these annoying little beasts but this was an absurd amount.  They were splattered all over the road, but there were some survivors out there as well hopping about and on me and my dog in their annoying little ways.  This sight brought to mind a book I read this summer (isn't the mind a funny thing?) named, After the Locusts, written by Jan Coleman.  It was such a powerful book and was really a perspective changer for me, yet I realized yesterday I never wrote about it and I felt the pull to do so.

The book is centered on the following verses:

Joel 2:25-26 
I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten--
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm--
    my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
Never again will my people be shamed.

Until this book, I had never understood what these verses meant.  Realistically, before my struggles in the past year, I don't think I could have grasped what these words were trying to say.  But I have lived what Joel is talking about...a life that has been stripped bare of all the things I thought I knew, that I thought I could put my trust in and I thought were secure in my life and now, at 34 years of age, I've been left to start all over, yet again.  But here's the flip side, I believe God allowed me to be stripped down in order to rebuild me again...exactly as He has always wanted to mold and shape me because this time around, He has my full, undivided attention.  Yesterday, as I was recalling the book and pondering on it and getting attacked by the grasshoppers, I realized in the past, how afraid I was of the locusts in my life, how afraid I was of starting over and how I wasn't sure I could do it to be quite honest.  I didn't know if I had the strength to stand up and go another round if you know what I mean...being knocked down over and over again is exhausting.  However, the Lord spoke over me clear as day to get up, get moving and just hang on for one more day because He had good things in store for me.  I couldn't see those hopes at the time, and it was almost laughable, but I had a mustard seed of faith that kept me focused on God and trusting in Him for my future.  Now, on the other side of that journey, I'm beginning to reap the blessings that the Lord intended for me all along.  He's replaced in me a new heart full of His love and compassion and He's giving me BIG dreams, audacious faith (a topic to be discussed later I promise), and a little glimpse of the path He's been getting me ready to walk down.  To say it's exciting is an understatement!  Basically, God knows I went through a hellacious last year.  I mean, let's face it, He walked every step with me, He held every tear and He heard every cry of my heart.  But now, He's starting to repay me for that lost year, and just like a plant can be stripped bare by a teem of locusts, that same plant can also bloom into a beautiful flower yet again.  Let's just say I'm starting to experience the "spring" of my life...in October!

If you have had something devastating strip everything away in your life, such as a failed relationship, a death of a loved one, financial woes, cancer (is there a worst locust than that?), illness, loss of a job...basically any death of any dream...I encourage you to read this book.  It will help you hang on to the promise of the blessings that are around the corner if you just keep a Kingdom focus and keep walking with your Savior.  As I was so instructed during my trials, just hang on.  Don't focus on your situation but look ahead and hold on to the fact that God will keep His promises to you and I assure you He will restore what you have lost if you just keeping walking with Him...plus more than you could ask or imagine!  Don't trust my word though, dig into HIS WORD and you will see it as true!

On my walk back home yesterday, a breeze kicked up and there was a gentle wind that began to blow.  You know what happened?  All those locusts kept trying to hop at me, on me and around me, but every time they tried to land...that wind just sent them air borne away from me.  They were literally flying several feet before landing in the opposite direction they had intended.  I had to laugh at the illustration because I see in this season of my life, the Lord is shielding me and He's doing new things in me.  He's keeping those locusts off of me and heading the other direction!  Their time to wreak havoc in my life is over for now (thank you Lord!) and that gentle whisper of His voice in the wind is reassuring me that He's got a plan for my life and the "repayment" of my lost time.  It may not be what I would have planned for my life but I know in the long run, it will be better!

Hallelujah the locusts are gone!

JOY