Article May 1, 2017 Issue

Stability in unstable times

David C. Kennedy

Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor, February 27, 2017.

Years ago I saw a carnival attraction in which the floors under your feet tipped and moved as you walked through. The fun was in trying to keep your balance while you struggled to get to the end!

Times of upheaval and instability sometimes feel a little like that, except they’re not usually fun. If we feel off-balance and uncertain about the future, and the things we’ve counted on for stability aren’t there anymore, such times are never of themselves good or desirable. But they can actually turn into blessings, if they push us to look beyond material trusts to discover our inseparability from God.

The Bible is full of encouraging passages that convey profound views of the unchanging relationship we have to our Father-Mother God. In the book of Psalms, for instance, we see the deep confidence that the Psalmist had in God as a refuge from the upheavals of materiality: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (46:1–3, 7).

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