When the whole world is shaken...

It's been nearly twenty years since our KKI Go Camp in Midrand, South Africa, had these verses as our theme. The young people's outreach T-shirts had a design that proclaimed, "Unbreakable, Unshakeable," and our goal was to help them consider what it means to live godly lives in a constantly changing world that is often hostile to people of faith. What does it mean to be part of an unshakeable kingdom, even as we live in a world that is constantly being shaken?

Who could have foreseen back then that modern society's presuppositions and common beliefs would be shaken to the extent that a government form in 2020 is likely to ask you if you are male, female or other? Who could have foreseen that biological males (transgender females) would have a legally protected right to go into the same Ladies toilets as little girls?

In more recent years, over the past decade or so, our broader KKI family has spoken a lot about God's "unshakeable kingdom." (Hebrews 12: 28) As our 21st Century world continues to be shaken in many ways, we recognise the importance of building our lives upon the only things that are unshakeable: our God and His Word.

In just a few short weeks since the start of this year, the coronavirus has swept around the globe, bringing fear and panic in its wake. Travel is disrupted as flights are cancelled and airports close. Shops and restaurants, schools and universities are all being closed down. Citizens in several nations (like here in Spain) are being commanded by their government to stay confined to their homes for several weeks. Security guards stand in the supermarket aisles in case panic buying and stockpiling lead to violent interactions between customers... The world as we know it is being violently shaken, and there's a great deal of uncertainty about how long this current situation might last.

But something very interesting is emerging in the midst of all this shaking; I'm already seeing it here in my own context in Spain. As fear grips the nation, Christians are standing out because of the sense of peace they have amidst the storm. As selfishness and greed spread faster than the virus itself, people are noticing that their Christian neighbours are offering to share what they have instead of hoarding it. In some nations (like Italy), people "imprisoned" in their own homes are standing at their windows or on their balcony, joining in praise songs together across the neighbourhood. People who become sick are phoning their Christian friends to ask them to pray... This seemingly catastrophic situation is opening doors for people to observe with their own eyes that there are others around them who are, "unbreakable, unshakeable," and they're starting to want the sort of peace and security that those Christians have.

I have no idea how long this coronavirus pandemic will last. But one thing I do know: six months from now, or a year from now, or however long it takes for this medical emergency to abate, the one thing that will stand out in people's memories, in our kids' memories, in our friends' memories... is whether we who know the God of the universe were any different from anyone else amidst the crisis: whether our lives were a testimony of an unshakeable kingdom or whether we were just as full of fear and panic as the non-believers around us; whether our generosity impacted those near us or whether we were selfishly stocking up on toilet paper the same as everyone else; whether we kept our eyes fixed on Jesus, or mainly kept them fixed on the websites that tracked the spread of the virus...

I've been intrigued to compare this virus situation with those that were faced by Christians in earlier generations. A Swiss friend has written a musical about the life of George Müller, who refused to be intimidated by the cholera outbreak of 1832 and saw it instead as an opportunity to rise up and change the lives of a whole generation of children whose parents had died in the epidemic. The stories of Müller's trusting for God's provision to feed those orphans are legendary. His personal journal is filled with 50,000 accounts of answered prayer.

Other situations that were eerily similar were the atomic bomb fears of the 1940s or the communist fears of the 1950s. Well known author, C. S. Lewis, in a 1948 book about living in an atomic age, wrote things that went against the prevailing and often irrational fears of the time. "If we're all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb," he said, "Let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - like praying, working, teaching, reading, bathing the children... chatting to our friends... not huddled together like frightened sheep, thinking about bombs." Substitute the word "virus" for "bomb" in what he wrote, and it's uncannily relevant for the situations we face today. Are we living unshakeable lives in a violently shaking world, or are we just as full of fear and panic as the people around us who have never entered the Kingdom of God?

Read on below for an example of God's response to someone dealing with fear...