Tsunami. Photo: George Desipris pexels.com
Are you ready for 2026? I’m not sure I am. But I am eager for new frontiers.
Janine Krippner’s “On Shaky Ground” column last week hit a nerve with me. A tsunami through Waipā? Unlikely. But her wisdom stands—life shakes us, and the ripples matter.
See: The power you have
Phil Strong
In 2004, the Indian Ocean shook with a magnitude over nine. Then came the deadliest tsunami in our history. More than 250,000 people gone. Fourteen nations scarred. Thirty-metre waves tore families apart and reshaped everything—economies, communities, hearts.
On holiday years ago, Kathy and I wandered onto a beach in southern Thailand. Once a coveted resort, now silent testimony to a day the sea rose up and did not ask permission. Years later, on Nias Island off Sumatra, I sat with families who had lost loved ones in the devastation of Boxing Day 2004. We cried together. That shaking? It shaped me.
Since then, I’ve supported work that gives orphans safety, love, and hope. Children arrive with despair in their eyes. Then, slowly – through steady love – they step from darkness into a bright, hope-filled future.
Here’s the truth: shaking, friends, can lead to shaping.
The need around us is not abstract—it has names and faces: orphans, trafficked, abused, hungry, homeless, hopeless. They are out there… if you look. And if you look, you will see more than you planned. And if you act, you will become more than you imagined.
The Christian message here is simple and sharp. Jesus said, “By this will all people know you are my followers – by your love for others.” Love will shake us, if we let Him. Compassion is the ripple. Action is our evidence.
Zion People senior leader Phil Strong and his wife Kathy, centre, are blessed by Tom Watson as they leave the church after 10 years.
Janine reminded us of Tilly Smith, the schoolgirl who shared what she knew in 2004 and saved lives. Scripture tells of a boy who shared his lunch—and a multitude were fed. But look higher: Jesus, though He was God, emptied Himself, humbled Himself, became obedient to death. His shaking causing ripples so you and I could walk in friendship with God.
Don’t shrink from what shakes you. Loss. Diagnosis. Debt. Betrayal. Fatigue that won’t leave. The quiet ache when the house feels empty. Name it, don’t numb it. Shaking is not the enemy—avoidance is.
Open your heart and your eyes and consider what you might see if you looked. The neighbour with a brave face and an empty fridge. The teen rolling their eyes to hide fear. The cafe worker counting wages that won’t stretch. A lonely retired person who hasn’t had a real conversation in weeks. If you look, you will see divine appointments disguised as interruptions.
And finally, dear reader, how might your shaking turn you to Jesus?
Bring your tremor to Him. Pray honestly. Ask for His peace and His eyes. Open the Gospels and watch Him with the broken—He always moves toward need. Then move with Him. Start where your hands can reach.
His life has sent ripples across millennia and into eternity. The Gospel shakes us awake and then it shapes us into people who love deeply and act boldly.
Ready for 2026? Maybe not. Willing to love? Yes. Let’s go.
