#47 Stop Trying To Be Unshakeable
“Be unshakeable,” the world tells us, but what if that’s not to our benefit?
What if we need to be shaken?
What if living an Alive life requires that we are shaken from time to time?
And is there anything that is in fact unshakeable about our lives?
Then why do all the Christian songs even sing “I will not be shaken?”
This was the stream of consciousness that started flooding my mind after church this past Sunday. Pastor Adam said, “The world shakes us to conform us,” and I knew before he even completed the line what was coming next…”But Jesus shakes us to transform us.”
That alone is a chefs kiss sentence. While the world seeks to make us all look, talk, and think the same in an AI generated, filtered world with trending songs and skits to perform, Jesus isn’t in the business of conforming for the sake of rule following; he’s in the business of complete transformation.
Metamorphosis.
The word conform refers to complying with rules, laws, or standards. So you might be thinking, I’m pretty sure Christianity has a lot of those, yes? I mean I guess so, but in the grand scheme of things, not really. Are they pretty serious rules? Now THAT I would say yes to, but are they overwhelming? Not really. At least not to me anymore.
Aside from the The Great Commission to go make disciples and the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments are at the core of the Christian faith and are summarized in this verse from Matthew 22:37-40:
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
So, yes, Jesus does give us commands — but not endless rules to perform for approval. At the core are two: Love no other god but God, and love people. Accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. From there, the rest — practicing forgiveness, faith, celibacy before marriage, tithing, prayer, embodying the fruit of the Spirit — aren’t boxes to check but signs of a transformed life.
Because in the fullest definition of the word, Christianity does adhere to a set of standards and abides under the Law of Jesus Christ in lieu of the Laws of Moses (an extensive list of pre Jesus rules that the Jewish faith is still beholden to), but despite what the world thinks, Jesus doesn’t ask us to conform out of fear of punishment or not belonging; rather, Jesus invites us into relationship which births a transformation which creates a desire to live by His standards, which is perceived as “conforming.”
Jokes on the world, they’re the ones conforming!
But, I digress, why does God want us to transform anyways?
Because he loves us that much.
Because he knows that the world will shake you to conform you out of fear and control.
And contrary to popular worldly belief, Jesus says, “I’m not trying to make you into someone you’re not, I’m trying to bring you back to the person you are.”
One of my greatest ahas in coming back to my Christian faith from feminist New Age, was that I viscerally felt myself coming back to what I could only describe as my original essence.
I’m sitting in a busy coffee shop right now in the middle of the Bible Belt, and tears pricked my eyes just writing that sentence out. I can still feel it now. I can remember how uncomfortable it was in the beginning. How I used to tell people, “It feels like I’m literally taking off a tight skin suit. As if I’m unzipping myself.”
I tear up not because it’s sad, but because it’s the greatest gift I have received outside of my salvation from the Cross. To be given the Way to come back to my original self, outside of who the world told me to be or whatever scars I picked up from childhood and beyond? Beyond even my sins.
That is priceless.
In biblical terms the Greek word is kainos. It literally means “unprecedented, of a new kind, never before seen.” God had the word practically jump off the page when I discovered it two years ago as I was reading the Gospel. The verse reads as follows:
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. Luke 5:37-39
Rewritten with our new understanding of kainos along with the root word breakdown of the other words in context, it would read:
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will tear the skins into pieces and it will be spilled, and the skins will be rendered useless, destroyed, killed, given over to eternity in hell. But new wine must be put into fresh, never before seen, unprecedented wineskins.
Does that not just blow you backwards?!
It did for me so much so, that I got it tattooed on my right arm and so did a handful of others at my podcast launch party where we raised $730 in tattoo tips to give back to the artist’s church — how sick is that?!
When we give our life to Jesus Christ, accept him as Lord and Savior, and receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we are kainos. Unprecedented, of a new kind, never before seen — at least to the world — but to God? It’s a homecoming to who he made you to be.
Grace.
Forgiveness.
Transformation.
Kainos.
Whew, can I get an amen, hallelujah, praise Jesus!
Doing vs. Using
Let’s add another element to the convo
Whether he is doing the shaking or using the shaking, God is transforming. That’s another golden nugget from Pastor Adam’s sermon which continued my thought train around this subject of being unshakeable.
This brings up two points:
Doing
Using
Many of us don’t like to think or don’t often consider that God might be behind the shaking in our lives. I find there are two camps. One that blames God for bad things without searching for meaning and a mystery beyond our understanding and two, that just blames Satan for everything that goes wrong in our lives.
Now, this is always a touchy subject and I am not going to begin to tell you if it’s God, Satan or simply life lifeing that is causing your house to shake (you’ll have to practice discernment and talk to the Holy Spirit for that clarification), but I will say this, scripture makes it crystal clear that he works all things for good (Romans 8:28).
So that job you lost? That breakup that nearly broke you? That marriage that ended? That phone call you’ll never forget?
Whether he was doing the shaking or using the shaking, he will use it for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
As I’m typing this, I just noticed the somber song “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron is playing.
I had all and then most of you
Some and now none of you
Take me back to the night we met
I don't know what I'm supposed to do
Haunted by the ghost of you
Oh, take me back to the night we met
It harkens back to the heartbreak that almost killed me. To that season of my life in 2023 when I stood in the rubble of my life after my ex husband’s traumatic brain injury, divorce, burning down my business, losing all my money, and getting broken up with by my boyfriend.
I say I stood in the rubble and ashes, but I didn’t — I laid in the fetal position.
And to be honest, I still don’t know what parts of all that were shakings done or used by God. I’d say majority used by as most of them feel like accidents, choices that directly go against His Word, or simple repercussions of my actions.
I mean, my goodness, this girl has gotten used to shaking! I have said out loud countless times, “I’m so tired of the instability. I just want solid ground and I feel like for five years the ground keeps moving.” And yet I know in my knower that God’s hand is all over this.
Like the shaking technique I lead women through in my Body Church embodiment classes (big plans for this!), God has been shaking off everything that isn’t for me.
This is where I start to loop it all together, you still with me?
Are we meant to be unshakeable?
And if not, what is?
In Hebrews 12: 26-29 it reads:
“Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
I have come to believe that though the world tells us to be unshakable, I don’t want to be. And I don’t think God wants me to either. In fact, we were not made to be. For if we are not shakeable, then we are not transformable. And if we are not transformable, then we are not able to step into the person God made us to be and the destiny that He assigned us.
Think about it, if you weren’t shakeable, what or who wouldn’t you have in your life?
Jesus came to SHAKE the world and religion and turn it upside down. In Tim Ross’ book Upset the World, he defines upset as a verb meaning: “to disturb or derange completely.” According to him, Jesus came to upset the world and train all of his followers to do the same through love and doing good. He explains Jesus’ Kingdom as an upside down Kingdom where God came to Earth not as a mighty warrior on a horse but a baby in a manger of lowly birth.
As per the above Hebrews verse, The Kingdom of God is the only thing that is unshakeable. Period. His reign was, is, and forever will be. We will sing holy for eternity.
As such, while in a perfect world our faith is unshakeable, most likely, it will be. We will face a storm that is either his doing or his using and we will be rocked. Shaken.
How do I know?
Because Jesus said so.
In the book of Matthew, Jesus sends his disciples on a boat across the Sea of Galilee without him while he stayed behind to pray. But a mighty storm comes and Jesus has his miracle walking on water moment to save them. Upon reaching them, they are afraid and think Jesus is a ghost (remember, they are still learning what all of Jesus’ powers are), so he instructs Peter to come out on the water with him.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
And there it is.
Faith.
I pray you are open to the shaking.
I pray you build a secure foundation in Jesus to withstand the storm.
I pray your roots run deep to weather the winds.
I pray your faith doesn’t waver, but if it does, I’ll understand, and I’ll be here to help you fix your gaze on the calm eye of the storm, on He whose faithfulness cannot be shaken — Jesus.
So, I hope he doesn’t mind, but I’m going to add on to Pastor Adam’s sermon…
The world shakes us to conform us, but Jesus shakes us to transform us to conform us — in love.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — Romans 12:2
And for a song to shake it out to for 5 min…
