Shaken Up

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you (John 15:3, ESV).

It’s finally Friday, and most importantly, this Friday marks the beginning of a long holiday weekend dedicated to commemorating the independence of our great country, the United States of America!

Typically marked by all-day pool parties, tons of food, and an evening capped off with fireworks, this holiday is a favorite for many. Since joining the working world, I’ve come to appreciate the holiday in a different way—not only does it bring food and fellowship, it means an extra day off work, and that by itself is worth celebrating.

I recall a July 4th holiday weekend a few years back when I was hanging with a good friend and her family. Her husband had just arrived back at the house with a carload full of groceries, and after numerous trips back and forth from the vehicle, everything had finally been unloaded in the kitchen.

As is pretty typical around the holiday, it was a hot summer day, and I was thirsty. Without really thinking, or considering the fact that the 2-liters bottles had likely been rolling around in the floorboard of the car on the drive home, I reached for the 2-liter, twisted off the cap, and was greeted with an explosion of sugary soda pop spilling all over the counter and kitchen floor. Ugh! What a mess.

I remember thinking that day and have had numerous conversations about this very thing since that life is sometimes a lot like twisting the cap off a shaken-up 2-liter bottle of soda. In an attempt to connect or create conversations with those around us, we’re sometimes unexpectedly met with an explosion of emotion that we didn’t see coming.

I had a conversation with a friend recently, and she was expressing some frustrations with me about her current situation at work. Over the past few months, there’s been an increase in demand in her industry and no increase in staffing to help offset the increased workload. As a result, she, and numerous other colleagues, have been left feeling stressed, overworked, exhausted, and on the brink of an outburst fueled by frustration. I feel fairly certain I’m preaching to the choir here as that’s been the story for so many during a time when our economy has been recovering from COVID-19 with an understaffed workforce.

As we continued our conversation, it became abundantly clear just how difficult it can be to manage our emotions when we find ourselves stuck in the middle of a situation that we feel we have little ability to influence or change. This ultimately reflects the true reality of so many of our lives over the past year and a half as we’ve coped with unexpected changes due to the pandemic of COVID-19.

In the blink of an eye, many of our lives changed dramatically—jobs were lost, many were forced to begin working from home, homeschooling children became a requirement, not a choice, and the list goes on. Though my life was not significantly stressed in the same way that many of my friends’ lives were, I’ve watched and witnessed as so many have experienced hardships over the past year and a half. Without warning, COVID-19 hopped in the driver’s seat, and we all became helpless passengers as we traveled along a path many of us had never been down before.

Regardless of our situations, we’ve all been met with unexpected twists, turns, starts, and stops that have left our lives feeling tossed around and shaken up, just like those 2-liter bottles that roll around in the floorboard on the drive home from the grocery.

I have been reminded lately that, though life is returning to a greater semblance of normal, we’re all much like those 2-liter bottles that have just been brought inside from the car after the drive home. Though we may look settled, most people don’t fully comprehend the specific twists and turns our lives have been subject to over the last eighteen months. To an outsider who walks into the room, we look like a normal 2-liter bottle that’s ready to have its cap twisted off to be shared with others. And, like I was that day with the shaken-up 2-liter bottle, they’re met with an unexpected explosion. But in this case, instead of it being an overflow of sugary soda pop, out pours anger, bitterness, frustration, impatience, or any other number of emotions that we’ve all been processing through as a result of life’s unexpected curveballs. Before we know it, we’ve created a huge mess! And often, it involves the people in our lives that we care most about, right?

Work stress, never-ending house repairs, relationship struggles, infertility issues, physical health issues, and an infinite number of other situations in our lives bring stress daily. When we aren’t properly processing what’s causing us to feel shaken up in our lives, we’re often left trying to clean up a mess that we never intended to create.

I guess my question today is this: Where do you go, what do you do, and to whom do you turn when your life is starting to feel shaken up? And maybe just as important, who in your life can help you recognize when that’s starting to happen so they can encourage you to do whatever is necessary to help settle your situation before an outburst occurs?

These situations, and these questions, are the ones that make me so thankful to call Jesus my Savior and my friend. John chapter 15, verse 3 from the English Standard Version says: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. These words remind me that, no matter the situation, when I choose to place my life in the capable hands of Jesus, He is always right there to help me clean up the unintentional mess that my sinful self has created.

Today, I would like to encourage you to take a few moments and read John Chapter 15 in its entirety. This chapter reminds us that when we choose to abide in Jesus, He will meet us with unconditional love, mercy, and grace to help us when we need it most.

As you prepare to celebrate the July 4th holiday this weekend and you reach for that 2-liter bottle, may you be reminded that life will always yield twists and turns that will undoubtedly leave us shaken up at times. But when we make the decision to seek Jesus in prayer, worship, counsel with others, and holy rest, He will greet us by slowly twisting the cap off the shaken-up 2-liter, helping us to protect those we love and always greeting us with a settling force like no other.