Monday, October 22, 2012

Even Though...

I recently stumbled across a blog called Heirs with Christ--written, coincidentally, by a woman named Rachel who actually lives here in Montgomery, although I don't know her. (However, I no doubt know someone who goes to church with her, is kin to her or otherwise knows her--this is the South, after all, with very few degrees of separation between people.)

Rachel is devoting the month of October to writing a blog post every day on the subject of waiting. Given my struggle yesterday with not being where I want to be in life right now, I'm sure it was no coincidence that her post from yesterday would speak to me so clearly. She spoke of the decision to praise God even if our waits never come to fruition. That is certainly a difficult decision to contemplate, and even more difficult to follow through on. And yet I fully believe that we cannot experience true joy apart from choosing to praise God even in those times where the waiting seems to linger forever--or perhaps is never fulfilled. You can read her lovely--and thought-provoking--post here.

Her post reminded me of a passage of Scripture that I discovered a few years ago, one that has simultaneously convicted and encouraged me in times of waiting:

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
    and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
    and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
    and the cattle barns are empty,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Again, there is the conscious decision to rejoice and praise in the midst of waiting. In the midst of suffering. In the midst of famine, of loss, of emptiness, of no signs of hope on the horizon. Despite all of that, Habakkuk chooses to rejoice in the Lord and remember what He has done in the past, trusting Him to come through again in the future. It is that kind of faith--the remembering and watching faith--that keeps us going when we want to give up hope. 

I can't say that I always have that "Even though" mentality, but I do today. One day at a time...

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