Shake It Up

One of my quirks that some have noticed is my shaking legs. Alisa is well aware of this “irritating” habit. When I sit down, I often bounce my legs. I do it without noticing and it is often the result of a pressure point that causes the muscles in my legs to shake. It can shake the table I’m sitting by. It can shake the pew I’m sitting in. I can easily shake the floor to the point that other people “feel” the shaking my legs are causing.

“Hi. My name is Chip and my legs often shake when I’m sitting down.”

I hope my life shakes you up. I hope my life shakes up the lives of those around me. I hope it won’t only be because of my legs, but because of my life.

Our lives are a lot like a snow globe. If left to ourselves, we become dormant. Snow globes exist to be shaken because in being shaken, they fulfill their purpose. They are seen in the way they’ve been created to be seen.

Each of us has the tendency to find a groove that works for us and stay in it. It happens in all facets of our lives. We find a comfortable place in our marriage and we stay there. We find a comfortable place in our job and stay there. We find friends that “work” for us, a church that works for us and even a lifestyle which we enjoy and doesn’t ask too much of us. It’s normal and natural for us to live in this way. But it’s too easy to become dormant then. Our values become comfort, convenience, and leisure. We value people and experiences which help us stay in this groove.

God has a different plan. He wants to shake us up. And His plan includes ‘shaking’ as a value we embrace. Many of us have been shaken up at times in our lives. Whether through difficult circumstances or transitions in our lives, we’ve experienced what it is to be shaken. It is definitely not always fun. We’re uncomfortable, vulnerable, and often dependent on others in the midst of this challenge. But I also bet that it’s in these places where the most growth has taken place – when you are being shaken.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says it a little differently,

And let us consider how to stir one another on toward love and good deeds.

Stir – shake – provoke would all be appropriate words to describe this process. And note that it says we are to do this with one another. We are to stir/shake/provoke each other with a definite purpose in mind – toward love and good deeds.

There is something contagious about being with people who are shaking out of their love for Jesus. They act different. They talk different. They love different. There is something about them which draws us to them. But it is not comfortable being around them, because they challenge us both in the words they say but also in the lives they live. They shake us up. We cannot remain the same if we spend much time around them.

That’s it! That is not only the kind of people we need to look for in our lives, it is the kind of people we are called to be. The only way a person shakes/stirs/provokes in the way described in Hebrews 10, is if they truly seek after Jesus.

Who is shaking you up? How are you stirring the lives of others? How does your life encourage others to invest themselves in the love of Jesus and living that love out throughout their lives?

One other thing: Often we are tempted to rely on others to shake us up. We go to church and get stirred. We attend a conference and get shaken up. We go on a mission trip and our lives are provoked. These are good, but too often in the between times, our globes return to dormancy. We are stirred for a short period of time and then everything settles back to the way it was before. If we are to be His followers, our globes need to spend more time being shaken than standing dormant. We can’t simply rely on “church/religious” activities. We need to live a life of self-denial, risk-taking, and trusting in the One who is the One. This will lead to a life in motion.

Stirring one another up is what love does. Allowing one another to remain dormant is not love.