Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. (Hebrews 12:28 NLT). 

Three weeks ago, my husband and I were up before light cracked to catch a plane to our favorite sea surrounding the Island of Saint John. We went there to gather perspective. Some peace and sunshine. 

And I’ve been quiet everywhere lately. Except inside my own brain, because I’m going through a Central Nervous Storm. “Get happy into your brain as best you can. Your dopamine is low… (aka, essential tremors),” the neurologist said. 

My tremors started three years ago. Two years ago, I stopped sleeping without the sheets just right and the window open and the stars lined up in a dreamy row. Dopamine has its important jobs, apparently. If you have trouble sleeping, call me because my 4 a.m. brain is probably awake, is all I’m sayin’.

We can talk about things we need to let go of, but also, all God is holding onto for us. Let’s talk about the sucker shark I touched ten feet below the sea that happened to be hanging onto a sea turtle and how I swam through clouds of baby jellyfish to get a closer look. I 100% have no regrets. 

Even though your husband gets a call (while on vacation) to say he has lost the job he’s held since a teenager along with 3,800 other people. He has no regrets—not even a hint—Jerry says. Not. One. Every time I ask my husband, “Is it going to be okay?” he smiles like it’s the very first time I’ve asked.

“Yes. It’s going to be okay,” he knows. 

Trust the Truth

Maybe we can trust the truth of one of my favorite verses, “I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken” Psalm 16:8. It’s good to trust that no matter how much our souls tremble, they remain unshaken. No matter how much water leaves the bay, it will fill again.

While on Saint John, we went to a favorite place that I call the shallows. But the tide was high. Still, the shallows looked like glass and there was nothing else. Only when the tide emptied did I see it for myself: a sea-change. 

The water departed, forcibly pulling at my ankles as several sea fans stood up to introduce themselves. Pink coral popped out of the blue water, too. It’s a great reveal, a completely changed landscape, I thought when life came to life in front of me. And weirdly, I remembered the opening line in the book Casting Forward by Steve Ramirez. “When I lost my job, I went fishing,” he says.

It is what Ramirez said in the middle of 240 pages about fly fishing (I read everything, apparently), that made me feel something though. “We are souls with bodies, not the other way around,” he reminds. It’s easy to forget how much life teems under the surface of circumstance. It’s easy to forget we are souls, first, I think. In a blue water tide, I witnessed wild grace and knew just how easy it is to forget the awe and wonder and worship of God. 

Fear and Faith

I admit, the tides have been changing for months now. Mostly emptying with simultaneous soul filling. But maybe it’s through the emptiness that fresh perspective is revealed. I mean, do we want the high tide way and smooth-as-glass living? Yes. Yet, when we read through the Psalms, we hear David crying in fullness and emptiness, high and low tide—in fear and faith—he cries:

“Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (Psalm 77:14-20 KJV).

This passage shows us how the holy rhythm and unshakable plan of God is to save. The purging of things is simply a revelation of promise: we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable.

Maybe the only constant in navigating life’s motion is the hope of who God is: Unshakable. 

We can trust the One who tames the tide. Trust the water will recede to reveal the hope and joy and promise of what flows ahead, but also, what lies beneath. The water is rising, and we will not be shaken. Amen.

Question:

*Have you experienced a soul-change lately? Are you in high or low tide? What is a promise you cling to when you feel yourself tremble?

'the holy rhythm and unshakable plan of God is to save' Unshakeable, by Beth Duewel Share on X