(The past several days have been transformative. Though I wish I could spell it all out, I simply can’t. What I can do however is paint a metaphorical picture that clearly illustrates the nature, if not the specific details, of what’s occurred. Without saying anything, I’m saying a lot, and encouraging you to hear me on a deeper, unspeakable level. On a personal level suffice it to say we’ve had a vivid, necessary encounter with God that has literally changed us… mind, body, and spirit.)
“Paradigm shift. A paradigm shift is happening in your life,” she looks at me calmly, knowingly, with a kind of confidence I can only describe as otherworldly.
I didn’t know what she meant. In fact, I had no idea so I gave it little thought. The words rolled around in my head, but not beyond. The never reached my heart.
3 days later.
Things begin to shift. Like a quiet tremor rumbling deep within the earth as an earthquake brews beneath the surface. I feel it, I close my eyes and sense it, but it still seems too distant to declare real. I shake it off, keep going thru the motions of every day.
4 days later.
The rumbling is nearer, louder, and growing. I awake to it at dawn. I sit up, swing my legs off the bed still sleepy-eyed, freeze, listen. It’s real. I feel a growing anticipation in my gut. It’s coming. I look at my husband, still sleeping. I think of Aaron in the next room, also sleeping. They feel it, too. We don’t discuss it, but we glance at each other throughout the day, smile knowingly, raise our eyebrows silently as if to say, “Are you ready for this?”
5 days later.
It arrives swiftly. The earth beneath our feet begins to tremble. We all lock eyes. Josh doesn’t move, holds his ground, entirely calm. Aaron begins to laugh, quietly at first, then louder, falling to his knees to steady himself. I reach for the wall, my pulse racing faster and faster. I close my eyes. As the shaking intensifies panic starts to grip me. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. Look at them. I force my eyes open. One, still calm, the other, still celebrating. Deep breaths. Everything is fine. The panic and the trembling both begin to subside. Keep your eyes open. Don’t look away.
6 days later.
Quiet, but everything is different. There’s a calm, a resolve I can’t quite put into words. I keep looking around at everything that’s shifted. Dishes, picture frames, furniture… It crosses my mind to shift things back, out of compulsion to put things back the way they were, back to what I know, what’s familiar. But then I stop, realizing I like this so much better. This is richer, authentic, real. This provokes me to live differently, more intentionally. I don’t want to put things back the way they were. I won’t allow myself to ignore that something’s different, drastically different. And better.
7 days later.
Josh goes back to work. Aaron leaves on a 7am flight. I come home to a quiet house, a profound joy, and an almost tangible truth in the air. Things will never be the same again.
And then suddenly I remember. I hear her words again, spoken in love and confidence, “Paradigm shift. A paradigm shift is happening in your life.” But this time, the words don’t just roll around inside my head…they pierce and penetrate my heart.
If we so desire, God will intersect our lives in such a way that we’ll never see this life through the same lens again, never struggle with the same issues, same burdens, never walk powerless. If we so desire, He will do the miraculous in our lives. If we tune our ears to hear, open our eyes to see, if we set our hearts to expect and understand and believe…He’ll show up. Every. Single. Time. He isn’t a God who’s capable of disappointing us. It simply isn’t His character. Ask, and you’ll receive. Seek, and you’ll find. Knock, and the door will be opened.
It is estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year, 100,000 of which can be felt. (www.usgs.gov) Those who are watching see them, those who are looking know when and where they’re happening, even when they can’t be physically felt.
Whenever anything occurs or transpires in the natural, there’s a direct parallel in the supernatural. We must tune our ears to hear. Something is happening in the earth. A shaking. A shifting. If you let it, it will change you.
Do you feel it? Do you sense it? Can you feel the tremors?