At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicated the removing of what can be shaken–that is, created things–so that what cannot shaken may remain. Hebrews 12:26-27.

I can’t say that it has happened very many times in this life, but I was speechless. I could not speak for at least half an hour. One of my friends from Uria Village had come into town to let me know that the road leading into our village had been heavily damaged. I was nonplussed. I’d heard this one before. To myself I thought we’d get some guys together, spend a week or two with pick axes and shovels and have everything sort of put back together in short order. That’s what we’d always done before. Not this time.

The previous month we’d had to evacuate because of health issues with one of our kids. We’d gone into the provincial capital city to get medical help and were advised to stay for a while. While in town a close missionary friend died suddenly of a heart attack. Our community was reeling. A few weeks on and, like the messengers in Job, a friend came in from Uria to tell of the road destruction. With all the heavy stuff that we’d been through, I didn’t think a little road repair was a big deal. And then . . . I was speechless. Massive amounts of rain + periods of drying out + massive amounts of rain + earthquake = landslides, lots of landslides.

Our road skirted the waist of Mount Somau and crossed five streams (perhaps I should say that five streams crossed the road 🙂 ) For every stream that crossed the road now stood cataracts, ravines, and gorges. Road? No. Obstacles? Yes.

Bush road leading to Uria village destroyed by landslides, 2005. The red line represents the original road bed, some 25 feet or more above the ravine created by the landslide.

Papua New Guinea has earthquakes on a weekly basis it seems. I’ve often felt the ground shake, watched the water in the tanks slosh around, seen fruit drop off the trees, heard glass pop and rattle as if slammed with a brick. Momentary observations were followed by laissez faire indifference. “Another earthquake.” Not this time. I was speechless. Extreme conditions produced extreme results.

Life tends to shake, too. It is useful to survey and assess the damage. This season of shaking has been longer than some. Hiking to the mountaintop in search for answers, gasping for air, drowning in my own sweat, I turn to take in the view behind me. What do see? The path I was regularly walking is now destroyed. I see pride leveled, piled in a heap like the lot of matchsticks that it is. I see self-reliance looks as if Paul Bunyan has just dragged his ax through it. The facade of unforgiveness is ripped from its foundations and tossed in a garbage hole. The forest known as fear, thick and overgrown and dark is now barren and desolate. Nothing stands. Only clay and mud and broken stone carried in the torrent.

Movement catches my eye. There are one . . . two . . . three. Yes, three. They are moving around their supplies: dynamite, dump trucks, front loaders, piles of gravel and sand and cement. Seriously? Look at the destruction. Do they seriously think they can build a new road here, one that won’t be swept away in the next disaster?

Hebrews tells us that these Three are indeed preparing for us a city, with foundations, of the sort of material that cannot be shaken. When the sky recedes and the earth trembles and all this goes up in smoke, what they build will not. It will stand.

What is God shaking in your life and why? What needs to be swept away? Are you building your life with materials that God supplies or are you building with heaps of dirt and foliage and hoping that your road will survive the elements?

Watching the destruction of what you’ve labored so long to build is painful. It will leave you speechless. It will leave you ripped and torn and in need of healing. Don’t shrink from the pain . . . it is worth it friends. It is worth it. You must be shaken to the core first and remade into a new creation in order to be able to shake the gates of hell. Let the Three-In-One do His work.

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.   –Psalm 127:1-2, ESV