Holding On to the Unshakeable

Last week at church, our pastor asked us a question I can’t stop thinking about:

Are you holding on to shakable things—or to the unshakeable God?

Whew. That one went straight to my heart.

I grew up in church and along the way, I adopted this belief:
If I did the right things… if I followed God’s path well enough… I would be protected from harm.
After all, there are plenty of verses that seem to say exactly that.

But I HAVE been harmed. I HAVE been shaken.

For me, the shaking has been… a lot:

Sexual abuse when I was young.
My parents divorced.
My dad died suddenly at 60.
I had to start my career over after 17 years of hard work.
I spent nearly three years in a ridiculously expensive legal battle.

WHAT. THE. HECK.

So how do you reconcile those Bible verses that sound like promises of protection with the reality of life?
Did God let me down? Was He punishing me?

The Earthquake Moment

Then there was the question my pastor posed. I really started thinking. I started picturing it like an earthquake.

If my faith is anchored to things that are shakable—my job, my money, my relationships—then when those things shake, I will shake with them. I’ll get rattled right down to my core, maybe even destroyed right alongside them.

The truth is, we all put our faith in shakable things without realizing it:
The government. The church (made up of shakable people). Relationships. Money. Status.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with those things. They can be good, beautiful gifts. But they’re not meant to be the anchor. They’re not built to hold the full weight of our hope.

The Shift in Thinking

For a long time, I saw it like this:
If I lived rightly, I could bring my money, my relationships, my career to God and He would make them unshakeable. Those things are part of me right?

But that’s not the promise. And that is the problem.

God doesn’t promise to make shakable things unshakeable.
He promises He Himself is unshakeable.

If I don’t want my soul to crumble when life quakes, I have to loosen my grip on the shakable stuff. Not toss it all away, but stop putting my ultimate faith in it.

And sometimes—I think—God allows a little shaking to show us where our faith has been misplaced.

Still Learning

I don’t have it all figured out. It’s a journey.
But I’m beginning to understand that the safest place to stand is not on the things I hope He’ll protect, but on Him alone.

Because when the ground shakes—and it will—only the Unshakeable remains.

Richelle Hofer