Hello, blogosphere! I did not preach to the parish this weekend, but I did start a column in the parish bulletin. I think I’ll put these in as well. Let me know what you think.
First, read this.
Reading 1HAB 1:2-3; 2:2-4
How long, O LORD? I cry for help
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
Take a good look a the reading from Habakkuk in this week’s scriptures. Now, think about your own prayer life, how often have you used these or similar words: “How long, O LORD? I cry for help, but you do not listen!”
These words of Habakkuk are in the scriptures because at some time or another, every disciple has experienced shouting, pleading, and sometimes ranting at a Silent God.
There are many reasons for this I suppose. One might be that too often we pray “MY will be done!” instead of “THY will be done.” But I think this is not so common.
Rather, I think it is because in our insta-gram, fast food, give-it-to-me-now, culture we are not very good at waiting. We want it right done right, we want it courteously, and we want it NOW! For reasons we often do not fully understand, waiting irritates us.
And yet, as Christians, waiting is an essential element of the faith. We await the coming of Christ in glory at the end of the age. As we here in the Embolism at the end of the Lord’s Prayer: “…as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.”
There is a great difference between waiting with great irritation and waiting in joyful hope. Often times there are many things in the background that we are unaware of that the need to happen before the good stuff can happen. For example, I’m told that the cone of certain pine trees will lay dormant for decades and will not germinate until a wildfire burns the husk and activates the seed. It may be urban (or more precisely “arborial”) myth, but the point is well taken.
In the same way, I have found that so much of prayer is simply waiting on God. And I have learned that if I am willing to wait long enough, insight always comes…always.
Finally, it is important to remember that God has three way of answering prayers: a) “Yes.” b) Not Yet”, and c) “I have something better in mind for you.”