Shaken not Stirred

I've had this post in my head a couple of days. Only problem is... my head doesn't seem to be working very well of late. So forgive me if this doesn't quite come out as I imagined it.

In the past few weeks, my life has felt like a snow globe in the hands of a 4-year old. Stuff is falling all around. I am upside down. Just when things feel like they might settle for a bit.... here we go again...

Can someone please take me out of that kids hands? And I wonder how much more of this can I realistically handle?

Truth is.. this won't kill me. God has promised to be more than able to meet every need I have. He has promised to take any burden I may be carrying off my shoulders. And He gave Truth and Love as an eternally stable foundation to stand on when everything else is topsy-turvy.

I titled this post shaken not stirred (thank you James Bond) because our lives can feel like they are in the hands of some unseen force (whom I know as God Almighty). We are all on a journey throughout our days. Sometimes we are filled with hope and anticipation, skipping down the path and smiling. While other times, we try and dig our heels in and get dragged along. And sometimes there are stirrings... when we feel nudged to make some changes, or stretched a little outside our box. It's a little uncomfortable, but the stirring is there to blend the things in our lives together, making us more whole.

What happens when it's not stirred? It's shaken. Worse than some small earthquake tremors, the pieces are flying everywhere and you don't know where up is. The only thing you managed to say is "Why?" What is the purpose of this? we ask. Couldn't I just have been stirred again?

I don't know the answers as to why there are times when we are shaken to our very essence, in all the multitude of ways this can happen, and we are forced to examine the damage all around. I have found that sometimes God allows us to be so shaken because we will run to him in a much deeper way. In that place He can love us and set us back on the one True foundation that cannot be shaken. We can see our beliefs for what they are and who they have made us. When we are shaken we see just what falls apart and what is so firmly planted that nothing can move it. God shakes us up and then brushes away the loosened unnecessary, creating space to be filled with the more eternal.

Do I want to be shaken? Not really. Who does? But do I see the hand of God in it? I have to.
Please... little 4-year old..... can you go find something else to play with for a while?