Life seems effortless when I find myself in a season of plenty. It’s especially sweet when I arrive exhausted but intact on the back-end of an exceptionally tough uphill year. It’s almost blissful when friends, financial freedom, love and health swoop in and surround me like a field of mountaintop Columbine in July. When we find our days continuing to contain more than enough—and filled with an abundance of good— it’s ever so simple to leave the dark days behind and embrace the lack of struggle. Even the word abundance is itself a happy word: Do you notice the third syllable happily proclaims itself a ‘dance’?
(Victory Trough: Sandia Mountains, NM)
I just exited a season I considered abundant. My son was thriving, I was writing my first book and my husband’s career offered success and money enough to more than meet our needs. In fact, things were going so well that after 26 years trotting around the world as a military family, we decided to take the leap into building our own home. We searched no less than 15 existing homes for what we thought would be our forever home. We even put an offer on 2 homes, only to be outbid. The other 13 came up lacking in a myriad of ways. So…we bought a two acre piece of desert land and hired an exceptional architect.
In my newly released memoir, Unconditional (available on Amazon!), I talk about the tedious preparation of the land before you even bust out a hammer and nails! I was astounded at the great pains our diligent team of builders took to prepare the earth beneath our future home. The soil by nature is rich in nutrients and minerals allowing it to nurture life. Bugs, snakes, gophers all call the depths of the fluffy soil home and plants and trees burrow sturdy roots in the loose unpacked earth.
While life needs flexible soil, I found out that the foundation of a house requires just the opposite when my eight year old son’s dream arrived at our building site in the form of massive heavy equipment. Front loaders! Bull Dozers! and a compacting, ramming type thing covered every inch of our building site for an entire week. Huge piles of soil were brought in, spread out and pounded down. Once, twice, thrice and on and on the spreading and pounding continued throughout the week. Each day before the men living the dream got busy on their equipment we strolled over the hard compacted soil. It seemed firm. But our builder repeated to us that the tests for stability came back negative—the earth had not yet surrendered to the pounding and ramming: It wasn’t ready to hold the weight of our new forever home
One early spring morning as I stood atop the hard surface, a light breeze tickled my nose with the scent of fresh earth. I twirled around the makeshift dance floor, soaking in the thrill of building our very own dream home after 10 military moves placed us in one random house after another. The rays of the first light of day began peeking over the Sandia mountain range and illuminated for me a ‘V’ nestled in between two mountaintops. Wow. In the hollow where one peak ended and another began I almost heard the rare morning mist shout a message meant just for me: “Victory!” After a tough season raising my son, I had moved into this time of abundance and calm. I felt victorious. ‘V’ for victory! Smooth sailing for years to come!
The home building process had gone smoothly after the foundation was deemed sturdy enough to hold a forever home. The framing was complete and it was time for the house to become a home! Then…Covid hit. Though the state of New Mexico never forbade construction companies from carrying on, construction workers became as scarce as the truck drivers who needed to bring us the materials to complete our home. The supply chain crisis slowed our roll from road runner fast to turtle slow. Then, I had two nasty bouts of Covid and my health never fully rebounded. My consumption of healthy food and regular yoga and exercise spiraled into a diet of processed food, too much wine and the occasional ten minute yoga session as the workout norm. Gatherings with friends, good health and internal purpose—‘abundance’— evaporated. We tumbled down from mountaintop wins to struggling in a valley full of scorpions and cactus. Spinning in joy on the ‘Victory’ facing deck ceased. Winters came and the lush green of the mountain gave way to a snow that obscured the terrain of my victory view. I eventually stopped noticing the ‘V’ that once brought a smile to face and flutter in my heart. Then I got really sick—the kind of disease that requires tedious interventions.
You have a few choices when life hits you upside the head, knocking you to the ground in defeat. You can stay down, clinging to your pain, and surrender to the plan the dark enemy of the world has to steal, kill and destroy you. Or, after a period of adjustment, you can lean into Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Anyone writhing around on the ground after an unexpected blow can confirm that staying down and out, separated from Jesus, seems the easiest route. Getting back up is too much trouble. But we believers are called to strengthen in our weakness through 2 Corinthians 12:9. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In other words: God’s got this! Have faith and lean into another, better, source of strength to overcome hardship. Find your ‘V’ through that which only God can orchestrate! My ‘V’ in the mountain valley outside my back door was still there. The WHO of its creation still shouted that I could always count on a victory—an abundance- after and during the hardship. It is during the struggle when the victory through Christ must be embraced. It is a daily process to get up, latch onto your faith in God and keep on marching up the rocky slope back to the mountaintop above the valley. What I did not know before is the abundance, the dance, is still there within the struggle. God is the author of our plans and those plans are to prosper you and to give you hope and a future. The victory and the abundance are always there in the struggle and in the mountaintop…if you keep pounding on heavens door. Sure, I want to spend time twirling in a field of Columbine without a struggle in sight. No matter what joy I find in every single season, I still prefer the ease known in the lack of struggle. But, this is our one fabulous life and God promises us it won’t be without icky hardship. We must spend time in the sweet, calm seasons of life packing down a firm foundation in God. Study in the bible, gathering with fellow believers and sharing the gospel with others are the heavy equipment we need to firm up our internal terrain and prepare for whatever blows are sure to come our way. Then, in the words of the worship song, Don’t Stop Praying by Matthew West:
“Don’t stop praying
Don't stop calling on Jesus' name
Keep on pounding on Heaven's door
And let your knees wear out the floor
Don't stop believing
’Cause mountains move with just a little faith…”
I know through God’s promises that I need just look up everyday and embrace the gift from the Holy Spirit whispering victory within me. Every single minute…every single day offers a peace, joy and courage to everyone: it is available all the time through the Holy Spirit who resides in us. Abundance is always mine—and yours— if we prepare well our foundation and then listen and heed the soft voice of God.