It certainly feels as if Jerry Lee Lewis is back on stage singing: “There’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on!” In the past few months, the news has been full of quakes, mudslides, clouds of volcanic ash, extreme heat waves and now ravaging floods in Pakistan.

We live in a world that can be too easily shaken. Within the past two years, we have seen the earth shake beneath some of our largest financial institutions causing one writer to say: “It has been so bad that McDonald’s is now selling the 1/4 ouncer and a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.”

In a Peanuts cartoon strip Lucy is hovering over a bug. She says: “Look at this tiny little bug. It’s appalling how little he knows. He’s not like us. He doesn’t know anything about voting or disease or earthquakes or love or Monday mornings!” Linus asks: “Who’s better off?”

We live in a world that can be too easily shaken: financial meltdowns, terrorism, oil spills, natural disasters and an endless array of personal tragedies that can happen at any time to you to those you love. That is why the writer of Hebrews tells us: “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and awe” (Heb. 12:29).

When there’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on and you run into stuff like devastating diagnoses, career changes, financial struggles or relationship stresses, drop to your knees and pray: “Lord, have mercy on me. I don’t know if I can make it another day, but people are depending on me. I still want to make my life count for you. Help me to somehow show forth your glory. Amen.

In the face of a whole lot of shaking, it is the bended knee that hooks us up with the unshakable. Think of a bird perched on the branch of a tree. How does a bird manage to sleep on this perch and never fall off? The secret is the tendons of the bird’s legs. They are so constructed that when the leg is bent at the knee, the claws contract and grip like a steel trap. The claws refuse to let go until the knees are unbent again. From sleeping birds learn the secret of receiving a kingdom that is unshakable. When your foundation is shaking, bend your knees before God and receive His “peace that passes all understanding” (Phil. 4:7)