This past Sunday, the hymn “We Shall Not Be Moved“—based on the African-American spiritual “I Shall Not Be Moved”—bothered me.

Personal frustrations of the moment fueled my irritation with the line “we shall not be moved.”

But why not? I mumbled as I sang.

Are we so stubborn that we can’t be moved?

Not even by the laughter of a child? Or the suffering of a parent who loses a child? 

I sang but wondered, Not even by the bright orange of the koi and the cosmos in the yard? What about the fierce winds that announce the storm or the quiet pull of a supermoon’s reflected light?

Even in that moment, I knew I was missing the point, twisting the meaning to suit my mood. The hymn is solid. The verses draw from Jeremiah 17:7-8—the image of the tree rooted in the riverbank, standing firm not out of stubbornness, but out of faith.

Stubborn Truths

This morning’s 365 Tao reading brought me back to the idea of forbearance: through failures and successes, through good and bad fortune. The reading calls me to bear what comes patiently, to remain true to my inner self. The tree on the riverbank does not move.

It’s not that events in my life won’t move me. Of course they will. But those events won’t break my inner wisdom. Neither success nor failure will move me away from myself. The love of a friend will move me, as will the sweetness of cream, and the warmth of a fire. But nothing will move me away from my deepest knowing.

Hymns like “We Shall Not Be Moved” invite us to awareness: to know ourselves and to be mindful of where we thrust our roots and anchor our truths.

Great challenges gnaw at the shores of the riverbank. But those waters will not sweep me away.

My roots are deep.

They are strong.

©Pennie Nichols. All Rights Reserved. 2026.