All Shook Up

[The Lord said,] “For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.” – Amos 9:9 (NLT) 

Upheaval. The very sound of it is unsettling.  

Shake-ups that catch us unprepared are the worst. So much institutional instability bump-stocked by so much individual uncertainty could never be the sacred intention of the God in whom there is no shadow of turning. 

Or could there be more of an interrelatedness between unstable foundations and Christian faith than we might’ve initially presumed? 

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword,” Jesus said. Jesus’s disturbing declaration doesn’t feel quite right in our pious settings. Is anything more unsettling than a sword instead of a word . . . or a bullet instead of a ballot? 

These days of deep polarization and widespread unease have us leaning in closely to hear a word that offers some relief and release from the tensions and tests that seem to signify sustained turmoil. 

Prophet Amos steps to the mic before us and says, “Hear the word of the Lord: The Lord says, ‘I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations, yet not one true kernel will be lost.’” 

“What does this mean for believers?” I hear someone ask at Coffee & Conversation after worship.  

Someone of much less prophetic prowess than Amos comes forward and offers this: 

Let everything shaky be shaken away. Then those who build only upon the sure foundations of Christ will illustrate God’s recipe for salvation and survival through unsteady times. 

Prayer
Shake me into stability, Lord. Amen.

About the Author
Kenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, Decatur, Georgia.