Shaken November 3, 2015

Read Isaiah 40:4-5

Luke 3:5-6      5 'EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH; 6 AND ALL FLESH WILL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.'"…

Isaiah 40:4     Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

Isaiah 42:16     I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

Luke 1:78     because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

Luke 1:79     to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

The shaking woke us. First a lurch, then a shift — our house and all within began to sway in the powerful earthquake. When it stopped, we waited with the rest of the city for the radio announcer’s comforting words, “All is well. The worst is over.” We didn’t stop to wonder why there had been an earthquake because we knew that living in California meant that we would experience earthquakes once in a while.

Around the same time, our family suffered a devastating job loss that shook our sense of security. And this time, no announcer was there to tell us the worst was over. All we could do was hang on to God’s promises with each lurch and shift.

“Why?” is often our first response when our world is shaken. Why did this happen to me? Why can’t I find a job? Why am I sick? Why? But can we really expect our valleys to fill, our mountains and hills to bow low, and our crooked places to be straight and smooth without some shaking?

Instead of asking “why?” in life’s earthquakes, a better response might be, “Help me see the salvation of God during the shaking.”