Yet, I will . . .

It all runs together but never runs out.  The Word, I mean.  It blends and builds and brings life to dead places. We’re in the book of Samuel on Thursday mornings in our Precept class, walking through the life of David as he triumphs and trips.  I studied this book over twenty years ago and yet it fits life even more so today.

I love David and his real-ness,  he taught me the importance of journaling.

At the moment, I’m reading the short book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament, written by an ancient  prophet who could’ve written this book after the evening news last night.  Unearthing the gold in aged texts can open our eyes wide to the day. You may have noticed we’re living the Bible right now, we only have to check the page we’re on. . .

The small book of Habakkuk, only three chapters, is overflowing with lessons for the moment.  The perplexed prophet was weighed down with the frustration of his day when his land was invaded by the enemy and it seemed as though God was not doing anything about it.  This.

So he poured his heart out before God with a why and how long, like we tend to do when our world seems to have been invaded by the enemy.  Good has become wrong.  Everything is okay and nothing is okay.  And we’re frustrated like Hab. So there’s that . . .

But this is what he did.  He gets honest, “How long O Lord will I call for help and you won’t answer?”  But God answers, “Look around at the nations.  Be astonished because I am doing something in your days you would not believe if you were told.” (1:5)

And so, he believed and he waited and he trusted and he wrote it down.  A progression that will never let us down. It’s a chat and a journal between a real man and a real God.

I love Habakkuk and his real-ness, he taught me the importance of journaling.

Early on in my faith, I leaned on a particular verse in the book of Habakkuk when things looked hopeless in my life. So, it’s stitched tight into the center square of my treasured testimony quilt.  It’s what holds it together.

I will stand on my guard post and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me.  Record the vision down and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, it hastens toward the goal and will not fail.  Though it tarries wait for it – it will come it will surely come.  Habakkuk 2:2

It reminds me to this day of how this verse is real for you and for me because it’s possible to have a holy composure and a sacred joy, no matter. If we remember as we write it down, to have it reinforced in our heart, so we can rejoice and rest in the truth even though – even if. .

The bitter-sweet story that begins with a complaint ends with composure.  Ours can also.

Even though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines.  Even though the yield of the olive shall fail and the fields produce no food.  YET I will exult in the Lord and rejoice in the Lord God my salvation.  Habakuk 3:17

May we unearth the gold in the small books that remind us to have an even-if faith even today and from the million moments before.

https://youtu.be/0nyG29JJoGk