What moves you?
I’m not talking about the things that stir your affections. Like a hobby or pastime, or a piece of music.
What shifts you, alters your spirit, changes your direction, robs your focus, impacts your choices and decisions…what moves you?
For me, it’s simple. Unmet expectations. When my heart is set on something happening and it doesn’t or I fall short – the earth gives way around me and I am moved.
I was moved this past week. I had been praying, fasting, asking God to move in a specific way. It didn’t happen.
And I was crushed.
Seriously, I was moved. The word disappointed came to mind. Questions flooded my heart.
Psalm 46 is one of the many places in the Psalms (and the Scripture) that talks about not being moved.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
Psalm 46:1-5 (ESV)
She will not be moved. What would it look like to be a person who is not moved? To be someone who is unfazed by the opinions of others, who is unshaken by the words others speak over us, who remains intact when hard times break over us?
Psalm 46 describes such a phenomenon. The person who is found in God – in the presence of God, delighting in, savoring, and resting – will not be moved. Why? Because they know they are surrounded by a God whose mercies do not run out a moment too soon.
It’s fall. And I’m sure there are plenty of things around you. In fact, hundreds of you emailed me to share how you have parents in chemo, kids in surgery, volunteers in turmoil, schedules in disarray. The mountains are moving around you. But not you. You are found in God.
Don’t move.