Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

It is hard to believe that song was first recorded some 65 years ago. Jerry Lee Lewis was not the first to record it, but his version in a 1957 release event climbed to #1 on the Billboard R & B chart and on the country charts and made Lewis a celebrity.

“I ain’t fakin’, whole lotta shakin’ going on.”

In the last four months the world has experienced a whole lot of shaking going on. The health, economic and social shakings from the COVID-19 pandemic have been severe. Many sources claim there’s a lot of faking of information in attempts to move forward various agendas.
The truth is hard to come by oftentimes in this world; we rarely, if ever, get an accurate total picture. Nevertheless, some things are telling. Funeral homes in hard hit areas overflowing with bodies waiting to be cremated. Refrigerated body storage facilities parked on some hospital lots. The desperate pleas for respirator devices which marked early attempts to treat sick people with low O2 levels.

I think most of us, maybe not all, can at least agree this is not your average flu season.

But agreement beyond that has been difficult to come by. Many kinds of allegations have been made. My inbox has been inundated with multiple  warnings of the plots “really” behind the COVID-19 actions, both governmental and private.

All of this has resulted in much conflict between people: the left vs. the right; citizens for/against government policies to deal with the outbreak; churches for obeying/not obeying government guidelines for meeting/not meeting, and so on and on.

Lots of animosity.

Stress does that type of thing.

There’s a saying which goes something like this: “When you get shaken, what’s really in you spills out.” That’s my paraphrase of it. Until something unbalances a person they can hide what’s in their cup. No more hiding though when the contents slosh out.

I do know for sure none of this has caught God by surprise. In fact, Isaiah 45:7 quotes the LORD, “I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (KJV). This verse is an example of parallelism in Hebrew scripture - light vs. darkness, peace vs. (not moral evil) calamity.

God Himself says He creates calamity, trouble.

Why?

Deuteronomy 8 gives some insight. Even though God brought Israel out of Egypt as His chosen people, not everything seemed rosy to Israel in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 - And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. (KJV)

Difficulties humble us and prove what is in our hearts. Our words, choices, and actions declare what is really in us.

We have been shaken out of our prior lives and routines. Things will never be just like they were even when a “new normal” does come.

Romans 8:28 is a favorite scripture: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (KJV)

There is evil in this world manifested at both the physical and spiritual levels.

They mean it for destruction, but God means it for good.

There may still be some flare ups over the next few weeks of COVID-19 panic/disruptions/disagreements, but it is likely the worst of this particular challenge is in the rear view mirror. At least for the summer. Hopefully.

We all should take some time to meditate on what spilled out of us during this time of shaking.

As Jesus indicated in Matthew 24, these birth pangs will precede His return and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth. Stronger contractions, birth pangs, are coming in the future. That’s how the birthing process normally goes, right? The wise see, learn, and prepare.