Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, (Hebrews 12:28)
I’m
listening to Anne of Avonlea, and let’s just say that Anne is not
characterized by unshakability. Everything shakes her, and I’m chagrined that I
might be only slightly less shakable than she is. Lots of things shake me, even
if I don’t show it. They don’t even have to be entirely rational. Recently, I realized
that my mind was pulling a nasty trick on me. When we close at work, we have to
stay to recover the store and get it ready for when it opens again. The
schedule says, “2-C” and every minute we have to stay past closing, my mind counts
as a failure or a punishment –
especially if it goes beyond a half an
hour, and it generally involves two hours.
That’s
a trivial sort of shaking, but I have friends who have lost loved ones. Others
are facing cancer or some other debilitating disease. Some people are homeless and hungry. Those shakes are not trivial.
We
need to stop here and remember how important it is not to belittle the shakes in
someone’s life unless we are very gentle and they know we love them. There must
be no “You call that a shake? Let me tell you about a shake!” or “Your shake
doesn’t reach my minimum requirements for sympathy.”
That’s
one of the nice things about God. He’s not shakable. As someone once put it, He
never says, “Oh! My Self!” His kingdom has never been shaken, even when Jesus
hung on the cross and died. He’s not shaken by the things that shake us. When
we’re shaken, He knows what we need, whether a protector, a steadying hand, a
shoulder to cry on, time to calm ourselves, a sense of humor, a gentle shove, or
a rebuke.
But
here’s the thing. Many years ago, I got through a day braced by the ridiculous fact
that I was wearing red polish on my toenails. No one else could see it, but I knew
it was there. In the same way (but better!), we can get through being shaken
because we know that underneath the shaking is Someone that can’t be shaken, who
will hold us up. No one else has to know, but if we can remember Him when we’re
being shaken, we can rest.
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