Starting Again: When There is Nothing Left
- mlcrendon
- Apr 14
- 5 min read
There are times when it feels like there is no way forward. Everything has been stripped back. There is no strategy for change, no light at the end of the tunnel, and no escape from the place you are stuck in.
It can feel like a punishment or a prison sentence without reprieve or parole.
How does God move or work in these places of devastation?
“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” (Joel 2:25-27))
Losing Everything In Hours
In the book of Joel, a terrible natural disaster is described: an invasion of locusts that arrives without warning and destroys their lives in less than a day!
Locusts are related to grasshoppers and typically live solitary lives. One locust on its own poses no threat. However, under certain conditions and particular weather patterns, they gather, breed, and multiply rapidly, forming swarms.
They were one of the plagues in Egypt during the time of Pharaoh, who refused to let the people of Israel go.
Imagine what a swarm of locusts looks like. Everything is quiet and normal, and then suddenly, a massive black cloud of millions of creatures blocks out the light.
Picture the noise of buzzing wings and the screams of people as they invade every corner of your home—cabinets, bathrooms, and even your bed.
When Disaster Strikes
Locusts don't just consume crops; they devour EVERYTHING—clothes, blankets, and even furniture—leaving nothing behind.
One swarm can consume 400 million pounds of plants in just one day, destroying an entire agricultural livelihood in 24 hours. They are the most devastating insect force, capable of ruining generations.
If you've seen the children's movie "A Bug's Life," you might understand the threat. In the story, the ants are terrified of the grasshoppers who arrive each year to eat all their food. There is no escape from the threat. - "They come—they eat—they leave." and there is nothing left.
Locusts are to be feared; they are considered a 'natural disaster' in the Middle East and Africa. In the Philippines, we face annual typhoons, flash flooding, landslides, and earthquakes. Sudden disasters strike, leaving entire regions in ruins for months or even years.
Long-Term Impact
In Joel's time, this was the worst calamity they had faced, and the whole nation was suffering.
"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten"—this does not mean the locusts stayed for years, but rather that the suffering and impact of the attack lingered for many years afterwards.
There would be nothing left to start again: no seeds, no plants to help rebuild a food store. This often leads to starvation and famine.
In Joel 2:25, four types of locusts are described—swarming, crawling, consuming, and chewing—representing an unstoppable destruction of Israel's agriculture by a "great army". This is a total economic and agricultural collapse.
The Swarming Locust is the first wave, known for "chewing" or "cutting" leaves and soft tissues.
The Crawling Locust feeds from the ground, targeting nutrients and young sprouts.
The Consuming Locust, also referred to as the "licking" or "gnawing" locust, strips bark and consumes the tree.
The Chewing Locust, called the "destroyer," consumes the remaining roots and leftovers, leaving nothing behind.
I imagine these four types of locusts devouring one after another, and the despair of helplessness and hopelessness. There is no escape and no strategy to recover. You just have to watch it all disappear.
Restoration Available
We can all identify the disasters in our lives. Sometimes they are significant events, but often smaller strikes have a deep impact: painful words, disappointments, regrets, or bad decisions. Our poor choices and weaknesses have great power to destroy and hurt us. In these moments, it can feel as if the locusts have attacked.
At times, we carry the impact of this damage for years. The locusts have devastated us, wiped out our crops, and destroyed all the seeds we had to replant. We are left broken and exposed, like a bare field with nothing left. We may find ourselves struggling to survive, starving, unable to recover, and living in fear or anticipatory anxiety for another tragedy.
God promises to "make up" and restore the years of suffering.
The Hebrew verb for restore is 'shalam' (to be safe, to be complete—to be whole). It is also the root word of 'Shalom,' which means 'peace'.
Peace is about Becoming Whole and Complete.
"The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have LIFE and that they may have it abundantly." (John 10:10)
God's version of salvation and LIFE starts right where the trouble began. It is a FULL and ABUNDANT renewal from the places where the thief stole, killed, and destroyed.
SHALAM is about being free from injury and harm here and now.
"For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds." (Jeremiah 30:17)
Health and healing are promised—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The places of damage and wounds are restored to wholeness.
Recovering from Devastation
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." (Psalm 51:12)
"Restore" doesn't mean going back to before. Restoring the years that have been damaged and broken isn't about turning back time or trying to replace things that were broken to be the same as they were before we experienced pain in our lives.
Restoration is NOT about returning to the old.
With the word SHALAM, we can understand that "restore" is more about creating a new place of safety instead of returning to what has been lost.
God isn't trying to take us back to the past but rather pushing us into a new safe place—His SHALAM place of wholeness. It often does not feel comfortable because we are more inclined to 'return home.'
Many times, when I have faced troubles and trials, I have found myself saying, 'I just want to go home' because home is a familiar place, a longing in our hearts where we feel safe and secure, where things make sense, and where there is comfort and a sense of belonging.
This was the problem the Israelites faced after they were rescued by Moses and miraculously brought out of Egypt: they grumbled, complained, and wished they could go back. They wanted to return to the familiar—to the place of comfort, to just go back before all the difficulties and challenges. But that would not be restoration.
Egypt had been left in ruins—the plagues of locusts, fire, blood, frogs, hail, death of animals, and people. There was nothing left after all the plagues. Returning to what was is not restoring; that is, returning to bondage and slavery.
A butterfly cannot climb back into the chrysalis and become a caterpillar again.
We are like Israel. We can't go back to Egypt; we have to move forward into our promised land. Moving forward is not a comfortable journey. In fact, the Israelites had to fight enemies all around them before they could secure their inheritance.
There are always battles to move forward into the promises of God. We often have to deal with enemies and remove their influence from our lives. We have to learn that restoration is a forward momentum of change and transformation.
Restoration starts with surrender.
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