The pastor paced back and forth, back and forth, calling out loud, "why, how come, how long....this pain is too deep to bear..." For all the congregation to see...
We sat rooted to our pews watching this man go through the same anguish we all bear from time to time...he was reacting in the same way, not the model of decorum we "expect"....during hard times...
Thus was my dream, it was so vivid.....sometimes our expectations of others restrain them from acting "normal"... They can't break down because of their station, or profession...they can't exude too much joy, pain, or laughter, grief because we need them to be strong through it all, ....after all, they are to be the example...the perfect mom, Christian, dad, parent, merchant, servant...the perfect everything...Christ is the only "perfect" and he wept, confronted, sweat blood in anguish, forgave...
Reading through one of the "minor" prophets, Habakkuk, he asked those hard questions and God, in turn, answers...
"How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted."
And again he asks...
Habakkuk 1:2-4
"Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord , have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?"
Habakkuk 1:12-17
Hard questions...David, in the Psalms, asks as well...
We do, as well... Pacing back and forth either in our minds or physically...the whys, the how come...the pain, the griefs pouring out for others, for ourselves, for our nation, our world...
Until we are calmed as Habakkuk was in final verses of his book...
"I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments."
Habakkuk 3:16-19
The Lord is our strength in times of trouble...we may pace and question, but we come back to this bottom line...thank YOU...that Your strength lifts us up to the heights...
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