Shaken and Stirred

A former pastor, a giant among men, once correlated spiritual happenings with earthquakes. It was his contention that the shaking of the physical earth is a response to shaking in the spiritual realm. He probably was not far off. I am willing to take his word for it anyway.

My younger son-in-law, the Coast Guard officer and certifiable, Apple fanatic, was the last encouragement I needed to get an iPhone. It has been one of the better purchases I have ever made. I mention that because it has an app that displays all the recorded earthquakes that occur, or most of them anyway. I counted fifty earthquakes worldwide in the past two days. Yes, fifty, yesterday and today and it is just past 7:00 AM. Would that fulfill the definition of , "earthquakes in various places" that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24:7? To be fair, Luke adds the word "great" when he records what Jesus said and only a half dozen of those earthquakes were magnitude 5 or higher.

The Bible tells us that, "the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now." (Romans 8:22) This verse is part of the explanation of why the whole of creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. (verse 19) Most of you who read this blog are relatively advanced in Christianity and spiritual life so we are not going to connect all the dots in this post for the sake of space. (Although I used to love dot to dot puzzles when I was younger.)

We have had a little shaking at the mission lately. I know it is anecdotal and personal, but it is shaking nonetheless. Our chaplain resigned suddenly, we had to let an intern go, and one of the men who had been doing well decided to return to the behavior for which he was sent to the recovery program. I am fairly confident the shaking is not over yet.

The last sizable earthquake we had in our area was just before Christmas in 2003. My son and I were the only ones home at the time. I probably should not admit this, but I sort of enjoy earthquakes. That is probably because I have never been in one that has thrown me around or caused anything to fall near me. This particular day, I felt the shaking and went to stand under a doorway, which I am now told is not the best idea. As I approached the door, Steve came from the other direction with the largest eyes I had ever seen and asked, "Was that an earthquake?" This little story illustrates that people respond to shaking in different ways. One thing is for sure though. The earth is not supposed to move under our feet. When it does it has every one's attention.

I work with recovering addicts. An addict almost invariably responds to shaking by revisiting his drug of choice. Of course that does nothing to stop the shaking, but the addictive soul believes that changing the body chemistry for some period of time will. Of course, in more lucid moments, they freely acknowledge they know it never works. Then again, for some, anything can be seen as shaking.

What would be the proper response to shaking? We have already acknowledged it gets our attention. The greater the shaking, the more our attention is drawn to it. The title of this post is intended to give a clue. When we are shaken, we need to be stirred as well. The response to anything God does should be to be stirred to some kind of action. What kind of action is determined by the kind of shaking. For instance, if the shaking involves the loss of a job or property or some relationship, the best course of action may not be to try and replace what we lost. We must first ask what God is trying to say now that He has our attention.

What God is trying to say will vary with the individual. Just to make an educated guess or two, He might be saying we had extra baggage we need to throw off so we are better able to run our race. (Hebrews 12:1) He might be attempting to show us where our weaknesses lie so that He can make us perfect with His strength. (2 Corinthians 12:7) The possible answers to that question are as many as there are people who are shaken. We are all shaken. The shaking does not come without reason. If you are feeling shaken, seek God as to the reasons for the shaking. Whatever the reasons, you can be sure the shaking comes to stir you to some kind of action.