A young business executive sent this letter to this pastor: “I see so many people around the church who have such strong faith that I feel like I don’t fit in. I wish I didn’t have doubts, but I’ve got more questions than answers. Sometimes I wonder if I am really a Christian. Can you help me with any of this?”
How many of you have thought of writing this letter to God?
Habakkuk, one of the prophets who lived about 600 B.C., wrote something like this. His book is tucked in the Old Testament between Nahum and Zephaniah. The three chapters of Habakkuk have different material from other prophets during his time. Instead of delivering God’s message to the people — as what the Old Testament prophets did — Habakkuk delivered the people’s complaints to God. So the book opens with a troubling question: How long, O Lord, how long?
When I was in the hospital, lying in bed, looking at the ceiling, I found myself asking, “How long, O Lord, how long?” Many of us have asked this question, too–when one is waiting for a result of a medical test, or waiting for the results of a Board exam, or when one is walking through dark valleys. “How long, O Lord, how long?”
Of course, Habakkuk had deeper things on his mind. He wanted to know how long must the people cry for help. He wrote, “But you will not listen. How long must I cry, “violence” but you do not save?”
As bombs once more burst over the same territory from where Habakkuk cried violence so long ago, mothers today hold their wounded loved ones in their arms with that desperate look of angst on their faces; if there is any human cry left, it surely must be “How long, O Lord, how long?”
In the Philippine Star, the following was on the front page: “Businessmen yesterday called on government to hold accountable those found to be involved in the misuse of public funds, regardless of their political allegiance.” Another says, “Typhoon Vinta made landfall in Cagayan province.” Another says, “BIR eyes more taxes from heirs of the dead.” These make us cry, “How long, O Lord, how long?”
The second question is more disconcerting. How can God tolerate seeing his people suffer?
In one of the Bible Study groups, one of the questions was, “If God is omnipotent, then why does he permit earthquakes, floodings, typhoons, tsunamis, landslides killing thousands of innocent people?
And maybe some of you are asking, “If God is loving, how come he stands by while innocent children suffer at the hands of predators? If God is just, why does hate mock the song of peace in Mindanao or in Syria, or in Africa? And then the hottest issue now is about government officials who seem to be, at best, incompetent or, at worst, corrupt. What makes it even more depressing is that we voted them into office! And if we sold our votes to them, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
But I cannot tell you solutions to these problems. I am not an expert on Philippine politics. However, the situation Habakkuk describes in his first two chapters could be right out of one of our nightly newscasts.
As the prophet looks around him, he sees only injustice, violence, corruption, and destruction. He even asks the questions that we ask: “Where is God in all of these?” “Is God listening to us?”
When you read Habakkuk, it is clear that he had protested again and again. He must have pleaded with God to make things right, but it seemed his voice was not being heard. He did not question the existence of God, the power of God, or even the goodness of God.
Rather, the prophet questioned God’s willingness to act. And he demanded that God answer his questions.
The response God gave to Habakkuk is the same response we are given. In the midst of everything that is frightening and challenging, God reminds us that the perpetrators of violence and injustice in this world are sowing the seed of their own eventual destruction. And God promises that in God’s time, new and better days are coming.
This does not mean that everything will go our way and turn out how we want it. What is needed is patience, and we just continue on serving, giving, and forgiving.
Even though sometimes we feel like we are on the treadmill with few alternatives, there is hope. Trust God that at the end, God will be victorious. Let us not trust ourselves, not even our faith, but the love of God, through Jesus Christ.
When Jesus was nailed on the cross, it seemed that evil triumphed. But on the third day, there was resurrection, new life.
When you catch a vision of what God has in mind for the world, when you know and truly believe in God’s plan of justice and forgiving love, then you continue to do good even if you do not see the results for now. People of faith are confident enough to continue to act on their values and become change-agents.
I believe that one of the finest affirmations of faith in the Bible is in Habbakuk chapter 3:17-18 saying, “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines, though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exalt in the God of my salvation.”
One preacher has said: “I thank God for miracles, for His mysterious interventions into our lives, but I most greatly admire those who keep the faith when no miracles come. I would rather walk in the dark with God, than walk alone in the light. I would rather walk with God by faith, than walk alone by sight. For we will never know that God is all we need, until God is all we have, and therein lies the answer to our deepest questions.”
In other words, if we believe that God continues to walk with us even with our doubts, we will do what we can to right the wrong.
If we really look around us, even in the midst of all the chaos, despair, and hopelessness, we see indications that God has not given up on us and our society. When we see people sharing what they have to the flood and earthquake victims; when we see people forgiving those who hurt them; when we see people giving their time to visit the sick; when we see people who strive to right a wrong, we see glimpses of heaven.
When God’s people continue to work for God, the more heaven is realized here on earth. People who have been to the mountaintop, who can see the End that God has in mind, will be the real change-agents of the present.
A tour guide at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem explained it this way: A devout Jew who lives far from Jerusalem has his heart set on getting to the Wailing Wall during his lifetime. He dies without having made the journey. Then his children take up the wish and the dream; they do not make it. Then the grandchildren; they are not successful. Then the great-grandchildren, the great-great-grandchildren. At last one of the great-great-great-grandchildren does get to the Wailing Wall. In the person and presence of this child, the hopes and the dreams of all that went before her are fulfilled. The devout father who died several hundred years before is at the Wailing Wall, as much as the child who now prays there.
The cry against injustice must not stop. Our work of righting the wrong must not stop. God is not finished with us yet. God is working harder than all of us right now to give us a glimpse of heaven in our midst. When we experience these, celebrate them; learn from them; praise God for them!
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Author’s email: [email protected]
