Unshakeable Foundation
When I was a kid, my dad traveled frequently for work, often to the West Coast. On one trip to California he called us at home and said that there had been an earthquake. I may have been in first or second grade at the time, so the significance of this event did not register for me until I saw pictures later on the news. Living in the midwest, I had no conception of how much damage could be caused in events like this. Looking at collapsed highways and buildings I was terrified that things so solid and, to a child, even indestructible could just collapse in a moment. My young mind began to worry that the same thing might happen where I lived. Instability is terrifying.
As terrifying as it is for the ground to move beneath us, it might seem even more terrifying for other things in our lives, which we thought were stable to seemingly give way. 2020 has been a year of instability. And just like a major earthquake is followed by aftershocks, so this year continues to be filled with surprises. Psalm 11:3 asks that question: “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” When we go through this shaking that’s the question we ask. What can we do? What seems reliable isn’t as firm a foundation as we thought.
The last six months have shaken our foundations economically. Entire industries are facing major disruption and perhaps permanent change. Livelihoods have been lost. Perhaps this election cycle has shaken your foundations politically as our politics have been more dumpster fire than discourse. At the same time, 2020 has shaken the mindset that our scientifically-advanced lives are guaranteed to be mostly healthy and free from disease. Not to mention that all of this has shaken our foundations relationally. Social distancing has wrought relational distancing. So many are so very lonely. And for some, all of the above has occurred in 2020.
While I won’t argue that the shaking is good, I will say that good can come out of this. Finding that our foundations are insufficient and insecure can lead to finding the only foundation that is secure. Just this morning I read this reminder: “When the earth and all its inhabitants shake, I am the One who steadies its pillars” (Psalm 75:3). Likewise, Psalm 18:2 says, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” In these shaky days, we serve an unshakable God who is firmly present and who steadies us when everything else is giving way.