Unshakable Things
Driving in OKC a few weeks ago, I had a weird sensation that I didn’t know where I was.
But I did.
But I didn’t.
Oklahoma City is the first “big” city I drove in. I’ve been to and from that airport a hundred times. I drove to my favorite mall in high school. I went to clinicals in nursing school in the city. My first nursing job working evening shift was in OKC. We got married in Oklahoma City. But I didn’t recognize it anymore. There was so much new construction—new pathways, widened roads, reconfigured roads. If I hadn’t had my phone telling me where to go, there is no way I would’ve gotten to my final destination. But I’ve been all over that city.
The reason I have been here so much in the last few months is because my dad had a stroke in December. The last few months have left us in awe of the brain and how God made it to seek to create new pathways and go around damaged places. New configurations, new access, new connects.
As I was driving to Mercy Rehab one morning to do a stent of sitting with dad, the irony of the parallels of the new pathways his brain needed to make, and the new pathways I was seeing on the roads, and experiencing in life was not lost on me. Post-pandemic life has a familiar foundation and components. WHY is this same life feeling completely UNFAMILIAR??? It’s like the framework, or approach, doesn’t work anymore. All of our reasons may have overlap, or be different. For me, it’s the shaking up of an entire profession that has left rampent fatigue and frustration. It post-pandemic new realities that are wearisome as well as the wake of what we all endured. It’s a new decade of life that has brought new concerns and issues with it. What has been “familiar,” now feels unfamiliar, even though the pieces are still the same. My previous approaches, pathways, habits and mindless routines aren’t going to work anymore. In so many ways, and for most everyone I know, the same “life” is there, but it’s all feels different. What is shakeable, has been shaken. What is moveable, has been moved. And what is left is what we are all trying to sort out. What is valuable now, that we didn’t put enough value on before? What is trash now, but I thought was the “bee’s knees” before? If my mindless habits and “ idols” and patterns aren’t going to keep me upright in life, what needs to change?
As the old song says, the things of earth have grown “strangely dim.” People matter; prioritizing my marriage
matters; experiences with my kids matter; investment in Kingdom things matter. No one is promised
tomorrow. Everyone on the planet is stressed and strained, and could use some hope and some care. I need
to care less about all the junk that doesn’t add value, and care way more about offering the people in my life
kindness, dignity, and hope through Jesus Christ. The disorientation has led to a sobering assessment of where
time and energy need to go in light of the new reality.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God
acceptable with reverence and awe . . . “ Hebrew 12:28 ESV
Monday, January 17, 2022 1:21 PM
