Turn Around

This morning, I was worshipping to the song “Runnin” by Elevation Worship (written by Steven Furtick, Pat Barrett, and Brandon Lake). At one point in the song, they sing, “Surely your goodness and mercy will follow me every time I turn around.” I was singing it right along with them and as I did, I heard, “Turn around. I’m doing a turnaround.”

 

I stopped and listened.

 

“Turn around. I’m doing a turnaround.”

 

By faith I turned, then I turned again, both as prophetic acts, and . . . I confused myself. Was a turnaround 180 degrees or 360 degrees? Like anyone would, I turned to Google to find out.

 

The short answer is it can be either.

 

A complete turnaround is the 180-degree variety. It’s when you have a total change in direction – “in your attitude, opinion, or method” (according to Collins Dictionary). If you do a 360-degree turnaround you end up back where you started – think of a tiny ballerina twirling around in a complete spin.

 

Just when I thought I had it figured out, I discovered something interesting in my research. If you drive 180 degrees around a roundabout, you’ll keep going in the same direction, whereas, going all the way around sends you back in the opposite direction! In other words, how the travel around the circle plays out is exactly the opposite of its normal definition, so a turnaround looks entirely different in that case.

 

There are a couple of other definitions for turnaround that are important to keep in mind, too . . . It’s the amount of time that passes for something to occur (as in turnaround time), but it’s also when something suddenly becomes successful, like a business that’s seen a sudden turnaround.

 

“Turn around. I’m doing a turnaround.”

 

What are you saying, Lord?

 

“Turnaround is going to look different for each person. For some, it’s going to require a complete change in direction. For others, it will mean a return to where they had been, yet the path in the direction they had come from will now look different because of what they’ve learned and who they’ve become in the time it’s taken for the turnaround to be completed. If they’ve been on a roundabout in life, getting to the 180 or 360 marks might look totally opposite to what they’d expected! Then, there are those whose turnaround will be a sudden change in success in areas they’ve been working toward and waiting on.”

 

In the Bible, we see all kinds of times God turned things around for people – healings, provision, childbearing, and even starting out the day as a prisoner to ending it second in command in the government of a country!

 

It’s not all God’s responsibility to make it happen. We choose to turn around, whether it’s 180 or 360 degrees, or we stubbornly stay heading in the same direction. In the case of sudden success, there’s work we’re called to do in partnership with Him – He’s the one who brings the turnaround success. There’s action for us to take, which is the reason why the first thing I heard was something I needed to take responsibility to do – “turn around.”

 

It’s a turnaround day and it’s marked by His goodness and mercy! What will your turnaround be?