Unshaken

Last updated on January 20, 2023

2020 has been a doozy so far, hasn’t it? It reminds me of an activity I made for my daughter’s girl scout troop a couple years ago.

I filled up a one-liter bottle with various tiny objects of different weights and sizes. Paper clips, beads, sequins, etc. Then I added glitter glue and water until the bottle was saturated with glitter, and I sealed the top.

What results is something like this, except with extra stuff in it:

That’s a picture of 2020, right? Sure seems like it to me.

I find myself, in this shaken up place, just waiting for the glitter and debris to settle, but it seems like the bottle keeps getting shaken. I know there’s no way I’m alone in this.

So, what’s been shaken up in your life?  What has you off balance?  To what degree?  Are you still walking straight? Little wobbly? Clinging to the side rails?  Hanging on for dear life? Completely disoriented without knowing which way is up?

Praise God, there’s hope for us both, My Friend.

In the biblical letter to the Hebrews, we are told that there will come a time when God will shake the earth and the heavens so that what is not able to be shaken might remain.

See to it that you do not reject the one who speaks. For if they did not escape when they rejected him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven. His voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. This expression, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what can be shaken ​– ​that is, created things ​– ​so that what is not shaken might remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:25-29 CSB

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells of a man who built his house on sand, and another who built on rock and when the tempest crashed against their houses, one fared better than the other.

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”

Matthew 7:24-27 CSB

When I reflect on the effects of 2020 and all it is bringing, both of these passages come to mind. I went to grab them for this post, and really had no idea that these passages are actually quite similar, though they seem to be talking about different things!  Oh how the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men (women, in this case)!

God’s Voice Clarifies

In Heb 12:25, the listeners to the Hebrew letter are admonished to “see to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.” 

In Mat 7:24, Jesus says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

In both of these places, emphasis is placed on God’s words and our response to them. In the Hebrews passage, the words come by “Him who is speaking,” i.e. the Spirit. In the Matthew passage, the words come by Jesus in the flesh. Both are God’s words and we are responsible for how we respond to them.

God’s words of power in the Old Testament, with which the Hebrews audience would be very familiar, shook the earth when Moses was at the top of Sinai collecting the Ten Commandments and the law. (Exodus 19:16-18 CSB) So when Hebrews speaks of God’s voice of power shaking “yet once more” the audience would understand the significance, only this time it won’t be shaking not only the earth but also the heavens. The shaking will sift the created things from the things of the kingdom and what remains will be only that of the kingdom.

Likewise, Jesus’s teaching in Matthew explain his words, and the subsequent acting on them, as foundational to the kingdom life.  Anyone can hear his words, but those who do not act on them have a metaphorical house resting on a shakeable foundation.  A downpour like the events and tensions of a year like 2020 can devastate that house. 

But the person who acts on Jesus’s words, places faith in him and trusts that he is reliable in what he says, has a house resting on a firm foundation. No matter what comes against that house, it will remain standing because it is built on the things of the kingdom, unshakeable things, not created things.

Shaking is happening, whether it is the specific shaking mentioned in Hebrews or not, storms are beating up against our houses. Waters are rising, winds are blowing. How’s your house holding up? 

Foundation Check

Is there cracking and crumbling from the onslaught that you never thought you’d see?  What is the state of your house showing you that you might not have seen without this hard year?

For me, I don’t think it’s cracking and crumbling that I never thought I’d see so much as walls finally coming down that I’d been trying to hold together with faulty plaster. The shaking of this year, so far, has knocked down those walls and caused me to have to see the mess inside myself that just wasn’t holding up.

I’d created a perfectly ordered system of behavior and responses and commitments that kept me doing good and keeping the status quo, and even felt a sense of satisfaction from a lot of it. But when my commitments stopped needing so much of my time and energy, and the status quo became too ingenuine, the walls came tumbling down and I found myself sitting in a pile of rubble needing to go to the Cornerstone (Psalm 118:22 CSB) to set new walls.

What about you? Have you been relying on created things rather than the Creator? Not even sure where to begin looking at that?  I get it.  I’m living the sheltered life too, these days. And I acutely understand the crazy in stir-crazy.

Here’s a few, hopefully provoking, questions to ask ourselves. Let’s be encouraged to sit in the answers and whatever feelings they bring up.  Yes, it’s difficult. But I’ll be sitting in it with you. We can do it together.

Let’s let the Holy Spirit working within us, and through the following scripture passages, teach us about ourselves and about our great God. Let’s allow those inner discoveries to direct us to the unshakeable, firm foundation of a life built on God, his words, and his ways.

1. Is your sense of order, routine, or predictability shaken? Do you feel like you’ve lost control of what you need to be managing? Does everything around you seem just wrong and out of whack?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 CSB

2. Are you lost, wondering if there’s a place for you to be loved when you’re having trouble finding ways to care for others?

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35, 37-39 CSB

3. Do you find yourself spinning around in aimless circles? Some days feeling like you’re on top of the world and killing it at this home reorganization thing, and the next moment knowing you’re a total loser for taking a nap…again?

Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:6 CSB

4. Are you feeling like the odd one out? Full of thoughts and feelings about all that is going on but stuck in a rut of the same old thing?

You yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

Psalm 56:8 CSB

5. Are you doing your best to gather all the information you can to stay well-informed and finding the surplus of conflicting information taking more energy than you have? Are you already worn out when the day begins?

And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 CSB

6. Can you see all the possibilities, good and bad, and you’re busy trying to cover all your bases for what’s potentially coming next? Are you worried for your friends, neighbors and loved ones as they go out in public, or get ready to start school?

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are protected.

Proverbs 18:10 CSB

7. Does everything feel like is closing in on you? Do you feel trapped and restrained and long to be out on an adventure?

He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:29-31 CSB

8. Can you see what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, but when you try to power through and accomplish it, you are frustrated by all the obstacles in your way? Are you concerned for the safety of yourself and your people and finding it difficult to protect them?

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:20b CSB

9. Are you feeling non-existent? Paralyzed to act? So aware of everyone else’s thoughts and opinions that you’re being pulled in a bazillion directions?

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:6-7 CSB

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Wherever you find yourself today in this great earthquake, remember those things which cannot be shaken, those things of the kingdom, will remain long after this season. Hebrews tells us to show gratitude to God for every kingdom thing in our lives when we become aware of them. So, let us end today’s post with a prayer of thanksgiving.

Father God,
You are the unshakeable one. The one who holds this world and all that is in it together. No great earthquake can tear your love away from us. You are our provider and our counselor and our friend. You lead us when we need to know where to go and how to go. You never forsake us. You allow our lives to be shaken so that we can get a clearer view of what in it is not from you or has replaced you in our lives. Thank you for that level of love for us, that you would not leave us to chase after what is not helpful to us. Thank you for our loved ones. Thank you for the technology to be together today, reading this post together and thinking on your truths that you’ve shared with us in your word and by your Spirit. Thank you that no matter where we go from here, you are with us, aware of our needs, and providing for them. Thank you for seeing us just as we are, where we are, and sitting with us in whatever that looks like. You are a good, good Father. Thank you for adopting us as your children by the blood of Christ.

In His very name,
Amen