“Everything is Shaking,” and Other Things Uttered in an Earthquake

Normally there are just a few people running around like Chicken Little. These days, if we’re honest, many more of us feel some solidarity with him.  

We might think the sky is falling because of Coronavirus. We might think the sky is falling because of the response to Coronavirus. We might think the sky is falling because “masks”—we might think because “no masks.” In a few weeks, we’ll have a new football to kick around in that arena, I’m sure. 

More personally, and more importantly, our jobs might be gone, our family might be suffering, our church might be in trouble. Your marriage might be taking punches. We might feel at our whit’s end, personally. There is no end to the list of troubles we could produce, if we had to write one up. 

Most things in our lives seem as though they are shaking these days. 

Farming requires plowing 

The reality about farming is that you don’t merely have growth when you just toss some seeds out onto the ground. That accomplishes little more than decorating the dirt. In order to farm, or even to garden, you have to till the soil. You have to plow it. You have to open it up before you can plant into it. This is how God made it—this is how He operates. 

I fully believe that this is what God is up to, in a great many ways, right now. I think that He is tilling the soil of our homes, our churches, even (potentially) our government and culture. I believe that as God brings His kingdom into our world victoriously, there has to be plenty of plowing and shaking to get us there. 

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” 

Hebrews 12:26-29 

The Church Will Be Shaken, and Unshaken 

The Church of Jesus Christ will be shaken. The bride will weather storms, suffer hardship, and stumble through confusion—but she will never be lost or anything short of victorious. Maybe, just maybe, the current shaking is helping churches realize that so many of us were gathering on Sunday mornings for a fun pep talk and positive thought, not for the substance that life requires (and that substance, or lack of it, is put on display during things like a pandemic, political riots, or riotous politics). 

Maybe many churches will wake up and really focus on the Gospel of Christ and the God of the Bible instead of the gospel of moralism and the god of emotionalism. Maybe congregants will realize that they need to crack open their Bibles, read them, and stand upon them with their whole lives. Heck, maybe even some pastors will finally realize this same thing. 

Perhaps we will come out of all of this more prayerful, more studious of the Word, more devoted to God, His Church, and His mission. It is not possible that God will fail to keep care over His bride, so we can look ahead and work for the good of the Church, knowing that that which is unshakeable will remain. 

We will be shaken, and unshaken 

Just as we live in the already/not yet, we live in the shaken/unshakeable. We are weak, yet perfectly sustained by the God of the universe. God is opening our eyes to idols that we have had in our lives. Idols of entertainment, busyness, money, pleasure, control, etc.  

God is plowing the field, and we ought to be seeing all the stones that He is churning up in the stony soil of our hearts. You have rocks. I have rocks. The question is not whether we have idols that need to be uprooted, it is only a question of which ones. 

And no, it’s not just the “mask” crowd or the “non-mask” crowd that have idols. It isn’t just the Democrats or the Republicans that have idols. It isn’t just the church down the street or your neighbors that have idols. 

Perhaps all of those activities and things that we are so angsty about being deprived of during quarantine and post-quarantine can shed just a hint of light on idols we might prize too highly.  

Perhaps God is plowing the earth of our stony hearts. You need not fear. It might feel painful in the moment. Our marriages might feel more stress while the work is being done, just as the ground feels the stress as its being plowed. But God is digging the new waterways, and He will be faithful to supply us with the water that we need to grow what He is planting. 

He will preserve us. He will be faithful. He will not fail. So, when we are led by the Good Shepherd, neither will we fail. 

Our politics will be shaken. Good. 

Let the Kingdom come. Let our earthly kingdoms be shaken. Let the chaff be thrown in the fire. We have no reason to fear. We have been given a kingdom that cannot be shaken. 

God’s kingdom cannot be shaken. The problem is that we need to see ourselves fundamentally as the citizens of the unshakeable instead of citizens of the immediate and the shaky.  

So, let’s become better students of God’s politics, not CNN’s, Fox’s, or our local college institution’s. We only have one place to go to in order to have our thoughts shaped by God’s thoughts, and most of us have left that place on the shelf gathering dust for a while. Maybe it’s about time that God shakes some of that dust off, for our own sake. 

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