The Black Swan

A new metaphor called The Black Swan Event was coined in the realm of macroeconomics by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007. A Black Swan Event is simply an occurrence of a highly unpredictable event that has a major impact on nations and/or the worlds socio-economic structure. It is a high-impact, hard to predict event that has life-changing influence on every phase of our lives.

The rise of new technologies like the personal computer and the Internet, major world wars, natural disasters like earthquakes, terrorist events like 9-11...they all fit within the definition of the Black Swan Theory. These are all types of Black Swans. And each one has a high-degree of probability of influencing entire economies, overall social structure, politics on every level and all aspects of daily living.  

We live in the hour of the Black Swan. She has been laying her eggs and they are now starting to hatch with greater frequency and intensity. The dynamic of the Black Swan has taken over.

On March 10th my wife asked me to fix a default setting on our spreadsheet that we use to keep track of  our business orders for our company. The program was giving her a hard time so when I went to fix the problem on Microsoft Windows I found that I couldn't get the cell that she was typing in to accept the "Date" setting in part of one column. Every time we typed in the date 3/9/2011 and hit the [Enter] button on the laptop it would change the date to "9-11". I tried it over and over and it simply wouldn't take my commands as I tried to fix the problem. 

I finally looked at Christine and said, "9-11 was a Black Swan Event. Maybe the Lord is showing us that a Black Swan Event is about to occur." Later in the day I took the boys out to run some errands and while in one store a man came and stood in front of me with a dark-blue soccer jersey on. On the back of his jersey was the word, "JAPAN." Below the word across the back of his shirt was the #9. Without going into all the details, the #9 has always signified "change" to me.

In retrospect, when I connect the dots, what the Lord was showing me that day was that a Black Swan Event was about to occur in Japan that would bring inevitable change. I'm not making any of this up. I was actually seeing this, albeit at the time I was so caught up with our daily routine that I didn't stop and really identify it at the time. It wasn't until the next morning when we clicked on the news that we saw what had happened in Japan with the earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami that I then realized the Lord was showing this to us the day before.

Why do I share all of this with you? .....I guess for the following reason. The happenings in Japan are actually a part of a greater series of events that, when taken as a whole, symbolize a bigger picture that God is wanting to paint for us right now. Click on the following link and read the following blogpost by Joseph Herrin if you want to understand what I am referring to: The Ring of Fire.

Did you read it? If not go back and do so.

These things are the beginnings of birth pains. And the Japanese quake and the subsequent and ongoing fallout is not the last one we can expect. Read the following prophetic word to see what I am referring to:
A Big Earthquake.

Did you read it? I know I did....for about the 10th time. On March 24th, 2006, about 7 weeks after Michael came forth with that word, I walked out to my mailbox on that particular day to get the mail. On lo-and-behold the magazine pictured to the right was sitting in my mailbox. It was a brand new edition of the National Geographic still inside the plastic sealed bag, completely unopened. And the really strange thing was that it had no mailing address on it. It wasn't a neighbors piece of mail that was "accidentally" stuck in my mailbox. It had no mailing or forwarding address on it. Nothing. It just "showed up" in my mailbox. Confirmation? Absolutely.

Why do I bring all this up?......Expect more Black Swans. Quit worrying about petty things. The trivial things we allow to consume us today are going to pale in comparison to what we are about to see unfolding on the earth.

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1,2

We need to endure with JOY right now knowing that God has a plan for us and our children in spite of the sufferings of the world. God has a plan for us in this hour and we must pursue it with all manner of diligence. Pray and talk to the Lord about everything right now. Everything. Everything. Talk to the Lord. Pursue Him. Ask for Wisdom. Let us find our hearts swelling with God's voice on a level that we have never known. God is faithful. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

God is faithful.

Be Blessed
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/