“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this?
He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
Luke 8:25 NIV

Everyone loves a survival story. A family moves into a home after living in their car. A veteran miraculously returns home to his family. A helicopter crashes, but the pilot miraculously escapes, unharmed.
Survival stories lead to asking the question: what does it take to be a survivor? We are a resilient people. We survive every conceivable condition. Earthquakes, shipwrecks, crashes. Illness, homelessness, joblessness.
A survivor is one who endures hardship or distress. One definition is: “someone who comes through affliction as a winner.”
Actually, we are all survivors. The trying conditions you face have not destroyed you. Maybe you’re a bit winded, wounded, or dizzy, but you are still standing.
Survivors encounter life’s seismic shifts. Change happens. Change touches the nitty gritty choices about where or how you live, work, eat, study, love, or worship.
 
Dreams are rearranged or postponed, just like in Langston Hughes’ renowned poem, A Dream Deferred.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Here’s the key question: What do you do when life changes? Will you rest in God, despite a paradigm shift? Are you filled with excitement about what the Lord is doing and will do in your life?
I encourage you to welcome pivotal change. Have faith. Release your determination to live filled with joy and anticipation. Have confidence in this one thing: nothing that happens to you ever takes God by surprise!
In this December season, experience Christ’s joy! Believe, in total faith, that the God who has given you so much will guide you, every step of life’s way.