Shake It Up

Article: Mudslide Buries Homes in Southern California

How solid is your foundation?

Can your home withstand a good shaking?

This phrase Yet once more indicates the removal of what is shaken that is, created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain. - Hebrews 12:27

In today's reading from Paul's letter to the Hebrews, we are told that everything in this world can be shaken, and none of it will survive forever.

We know this.  We see pictures of the results of sudden changes in nature.  Man is not the only source of destruction.

For some reason, though, we like to blame ourselves for it all, as though we have the keys, the power and the ability to control the forces of nature.

On the other hand, if we don't, we shouldn't be offering nature any help, making it worse.

But Paul's focus is not on us in that respect.  He is telling us to be aware of the reality of this world, that all will come to an end.  We shouldn't look for security in things.  Our security is in the Lord.

Now, surely that doesn't mean we should slack off, not worry about making our buildings secure, use shoddy construction, take the easy road when designing and building bridges.  None of us would ever go anywhere.

I think the message here is to think of our ancestors, the nomads and herders who moved through the world without staking claim to any one piece of it.

This would have been good advice to take when I sought my career.  With each job change and promotion, I found myself digging in a little deeper, planting roots and building on the foundation that I believed was solid, secure, permanent.

We even called each change a shake-up, liken them to earthquakes, rather than inevitable waves on the ocean.

We are not stupid, right?

We know that there are consequences to everything.  A dry season produces fires.  Fires scorch the land, strip it of trees and vegetation.  Without such life, the barren land has no anchor, no depth.  When the rains come, what will happen?

On couple cleaning out their driveway after the last mudslide said they would leave immediately when it rains again.  Why wait and get crushed?

Perhaps the lesson in all this is to seek wisdom in choosing which things we will hold onto and which we will abandon, which battles we will fight and which we will let pass.

We cannot make the world be safe.  It just isn't.

We can be angry with God for that, since it is his creation, but that won't change things.  No, I think we need to set our sights on the things that are true and solid.  Yes, those things are from God, but some are within our abilities, like friendship, love, honesty, help, support.

The only nature we can influence, therefore, is our own.

More to come...