“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 Saviour.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
‘Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait, you watch, you work: you don’t give up’. (Ann Lamott)
“Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusion. It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. It is the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying. And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it in his way and in his time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling him both how and when to do it.” (Eugene Peterson)
I used this same text within my sermon on Sunday. It is the fact that Habakkuk chooses to rejoice in the Lord that is so important. All too often we choose to wallow in our difficulties. The pain of past hurt, the disappointment of betrayal rule our lives, yet by choosing to rejoice; by choosing to be joyful in our Salvation we express the joy that only the Spirit can inspire!