The picture with this post is of Rivergate Mall. Or what used to be Rivergate Mall. The spot where I stood is where we would enter to go down to the lower level of Sears. The pile of rubble to the right of Dillard’s is what’s left of the food court.
Rivergate Mall opened on October 6, 1971, in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. It was a 1.1 million square foot super-regional shopping center. I suspect it was a contributing factor in the decline of shopping on Church Street in downtown Nashville.
The Christmas music, decorations, and Santa in the middle of the mall almost replaced the wonder of my 1950s Christmas memories in downtown Jeffersonville, Indiana. When Jan and I moved back to the Madison area in the early 80s, we were instantly addicted to its convenience and energy.
But life has its turns. The Mall is no more. All that is left in this photo is JCPenney and Dillard’s. All the rest has been trucked to a landfill somewhere. It’s kind of sad. The last time I was in the mall, it was empty except for a few sleepy shops and a small herd of senior adult walkers getting in their steps. I was one of them.
Shoppers and adolescent hoppers shifted their spending and socializing to newer, blingier shopping locations.
As I said, it is sad to see it go, but I’m looking forward to the “new thing,” whatever it is.
Before the location is revitalized, one thing must happen: the old mall must be completely removed. The land must be cleared for the new attraction to be realized.
What once worked exceptionally well lost its pizzazz. It didn’t work anymore; it didn’t generate a cash flow. It drained the coffers of the owners and the tenants. The felicity created a great deal of excitement for a while, then it created a great drain.
I find a parallel between life and the Rivergate Mall. There are those aspects of the New LIfe that sizzle with zest in the beginning but eventually bland out to become burdens. Or what once worked for us became heavy loads to endure. Pleasure ceases and pain commences.
And we wonder, where is God? Why does God let this happen? We moan and bemoan the loathsome state of some part of our lives, or the totality of our lives. The thing to which we have been invested has reached what economists call “The law of diminishing returns” and now creates more drain than gain.
So, what is happening? From a Kingdom of God perspective (if you’re looking from the correct viewpoint), it is plain to see. As much as we enjoyed it, Rivergate Mall was never meant to be all things to all people, for all time. The life God brought you when you first became a Christian or followed a calling was not meant to be forever. It was for a season. The King of the Kingdom will not let His place of residence stay as it was. As He pushes into new areas of our living, the old things have to be removed to accommodate what His next adventure will build.
God is not taking away your joy and peace to make your life miserable or because you are a bad, misbehaving person. He is clearing out the old, inefficient construction to allow for spiritual renewal, a revival.
Each church I have pastored has prayed in word and song for God to send revival. Maybe God is not into “re-ing” anything. He is about “viveing” His children. God does not restore old things; He replaces old things with new things. There is a difference. The old must be eliminated, removed, vacated, jettisoned.
Dying to self, as Jesus speaks of it, is just that: trusting that as we leave what no longer satisfies Him, He will give us the new that satisfies Him. Life is not about my pleasure or satisfaction – it’s about His!
As I have pondered this line of thought, I have not found a place where discomfort or pain has not been followed by an expansion of the Kingdom of God. Suffering, no matter the cause, is terrible to endure. But it is a true sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God in our presence. (Remember the Lord’s Prayer)
A follower of Jesus Christ does not focus on the pain but on the King. This focus likely does not minimize the pain felt. However, it does have two benefits: an awareness that God is near and that His Kingdom is advancing on earth. It may not feel like it or look like it as we maneuver through life’s potholes, but then we walk by faith, not by feelings, i.e., sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
We do not like our lives to change. We prefer comfort here and now to the discomfort of a life of Kingdom adventure. God is our comfort; He is our comforter. For me, that means He does not just give us a comfortable life; the union with Him is our comfort. The closer you are to Him, the more you will discover comfort in your tribulation.
John 12:24
I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. (Contemporary English Version)
Falling 
