Because spraining my ankle while moving and being confined to wearing a brace for a month wasn’t bad enough….
“Have you heard this song yet?” That was the text that I had received from my sistah-friend a few weeks ago, pointing me towards the melodic gospel song, “When I pray” by Doe. I had heard it before and I absolutely loved the song, so when my sis shared it with me, I immediately added it to my Spotify album and continued to listen to it for the rest of the day. At the end of the song, Spotify was smart enough to start playing similar songs and, naturally, the next song on its list was that song.
“Yes” by Shekinah Glory… my shift song.
Sunday, February 26, 2017. I will never forget that day because it was the day that my life shifted towards the path that I’m on now. I was driving home from a weekend in Virginia Beach and that song came on. (I know I’ve shared this story before, but indulge me and read it again.) Just as I finished singing along, I came to a stop due to traffic ahead of me. My spirit was high and I truly felt at peace. I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the car behind me come to a stop just as I had a few seconds before. I glanced away but then, for some reason, I looked in my rearview mirror again. This time, what I saw caused me to tense up and brace myself for something bad to happen.
BOOM!
The driver of the truck behind the car behind me was inebriated and did not brake in time. He slammed into the car behind me, causing the driver of the car behind me to crash into me. Unbeknownst to me, when you see impending danger, your body tenses up and that allows for more pain to present itself… but I’ll get back to that later. The song. The song was playing and I believed its words to be true. As I sat there in pain and momentary fear, I cried out to God. I didn’t know what would happen next, but I knew in that very moment that my life had forever changed. That song became my SHIFT song. From that day forward, any time that song came on, a major shift was headed my way.
Fast forward to last month.
In a two-hour time period I had heard my shift song AND observed what I’ve coined my shift sign/symbol. In Genesis 9:13-16, God spoke to Noah after the flood, stating that the rainbow was a sign of His covenant with earth. He promised that whenever we saw the rainbow, He would remember His covenant between Himself and all living creatures on earth. A covenant for our good; a covenant for our life.
And I do remember His promise towards me. When I see a rainbow (which is very rare), I remember all of the promises that God has spoken over my life. Imagine my heart’s delight when I heard my song and saw my rainbow on the same day. Imagine the brief overwhelming feeling of panic that passed through my heart as I heard my song and saw my rainbow on the same day. Uh oh… what does this mean, God?
Because spraining my ankle while moving and being confined to wearing a brace for a month wasn’t bad enough….
Imagine my surprise when I heard the startling BOOM of a car slamming into the back of mine as I drove home after running some errands on Tuesday after work.
“You have GOT to be kidding me…” Those were the first words that crossed my mind as I struggled to process the fact that I had just been in my fourth rear-end collision. According to my colleague who teaches statistics, four rear-end collisions in one’s lifetime is extremely rare. Well, clearly he doesn’t know that if something requires unicorn odds, it has my name all over it.
This weekend I was greeted with alternating pain that was intent on stealing my joy. Some say that I need to slow down but, obviously, I disagree. From what I learned while watching the Fast and Furious series, you are supposed to coast during the meat of the race and then speed up towards the end. It’s right towards the end when you are supposed to trip the NOS, causing your car to go faster than ever before. Well, I consider this my NOS moment. This is not the time for me to slow down, it’s my time to punch it and go full throttle towards the finish line.
At least, that’s what I thought.
But I found myself laughing in church yesterday as my back and neck radiated in pain. My bandaged ankle that was writhing in pain on Saturday, had no pain during Sunday service. I realized that my ankle was hurting on Saturday due to my excessive walking, but for the same reason, my back was not hurting. Likewise, on Sunday my back was hurting because I was sitting, but my ankle was not hurting for that very reason. The catch-22 of my weekend leads me right back to that day in August. The day when I heard YES and saw a rainbow on the same day.
WHEW! I don’t know what God is doing in my life right now. The reality of my past couple of weeks, coupled with the dream that I had this time last year (I promise I will share details on this dream when God releases me to share it with the world) leads me to believe that something BIG is right around the corner. I’m in a season where God is keeping me on alert, ensuring that I am ready for when He makes a major move. It’s like that day in February 2017. I’m bracing for a major impact on my life; something that I know will change me forever.
It’s beautiful.
It’s terrifying.
It’s all-consuming.
It’s overwhelming.
Yet I welcome it because it’s my Shift Season.
Be blessed.
God Happened To ME Ministries, LLC 