What Will You Do When the Earth Shakes?
“Let them praise His name with dancing; Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.
For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
-Psalm 149:3-4 (NASB)
It had been a quiet afternoon on the last day of March. I was working in the house when I heard a loud grinding, rumbling sound. I thought maybe a heavy truck or a train was passing by below our house. Then my son and my husband simultaneously asked, “Did you feel that? Is that an earthquake?”
I felt nothing, but I looked up and saw the ceiling light sway back and forth. We discovered that, indeed, a 6.5 earthquake had struck in the Challis National Forest near Boise, Idaho, the largest seismic event in Idaho since 1983. We felt it on the other side of the state.
Excitedly, we called our eldest son, who lives nearby. He had neither heard nor felt the quake. The reason? He and his wife had turned on some music and were dancing around the house with their young children.
He was disappointed to have missed the event. But later, it occurred to me that dancing through an earth-shaking event was not a bad way to spend an afternoon. In fact, it’s very scriptural. The Apostle Paul, from the depths of a Roman prison, encouraged God’s people to do that very thing. We may not be able to literally dance around every situation we encounter, but our hearts can.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! -Philippians 4:4 (NASB)
God has not promised that our world would never shake. He never promised us a smooth life without heartache and difficulties. In fact, He warned us to expect hardship in this world. He did, however, promise that He has already overcome anything this world can throw at us.
Has your home been shaken? Sing that your spiritual house still stands upon the Rock.
Have you suffered for your faith? Rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ.
Does the immediate future look frightening? Remember who holds your future and smile.
The world will get darker. We can spend our time wringing our hands over the deception and disarray of the nations. We can live in fear.
Or we can dance the night away.
“Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas….”
-Psalm 46:2 (CSB)