Frenzied Friday...

If you've ever been around young children, you know of their propensity to ask the question: "Why?" Their little minds are working and they are certainly curious about how the world works around them. As parents we get creative on exactly how to answer this never ending merry-go-round of questioning.  My reply, after exhausting every explanation I can think of, has become a standard statement: "Because....that's just the way things are."

Blessed silence. Then they'll spot something else "uh-mazing" and it begins all over again.

On Thoughtful Thursday last week I shared a peek at one of the workshop classes I'll be teaching at our Ladies Array coming up in a couple of weeks. You know the one: "Master, the Tempest is Raging"....a title that seems to sum up my life with three young kids.

During Spring Break this week I've been finishing up the outline, handouts, slides....all the goodies of this class, and have been meditating on a point in my outline. It deals specifically with having the faith to trust the Lord with those "What Ifs", "If Onlys", and "Whys" of life.

Since my youngest is just coming out of the "Why" phase, I've taken notice of  the correlation between the parent/child relationship and my personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. It's in the times when I just don't understand exactly why God is working the way He is working, that I turn into my four year old asking my Heavenly Father: "Why?"

Habakkuk of the Bible had the same situation happen to him. You know the little minor prophet between Nahum and Zephaniah. He's one of many Old Testament prophets who had nothing good to say about the nation of Israel because of their sinfulness. "Oh Lord, how long shall I cry...even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save!"

The Lord answered Habakkuk, just not with news he wanted to hear. Sure the Lord was going to deliver His people from the wickedness around them...but He was going to do so by delivering them into the hands of the Chaldeans: "that bitter and hasty nation.....They are terrible and dreadful."

When the Lord says they're dreadful and terrible it means they're the ones behind the definition in the dictionary.

Can you picture Habakkuk's mouth hanging open? This was not at all how he thought the Lord was going to deliver His people. So he reminds the Lord at the end of chapter one: "Shall they...not spare continually to slay all the nations?" I mean really....isn't that going from the frying pan into the fire?

The Lord turns around to Habakkuk in chapter two with a reminder that "Hey, Habakkuk. I'm still in control." The just shall live by their faith and the Chaldeans will have their own judgement. To Habakkuk's "why?" He reminds: "But the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him." In other words, "Because, Habakkuk... I'm in control."

We should be reminded that if God was in control back then, and He hasn't changed in the years leading up to today (I change not!), He's going to still be in control tomorrow.

And Habakkuk? He caught on a whole lot quicker than we sometimes do. After praising the Lord for His strength and greatness, Habakkuk ends his little book with this statement: "Although...." Although things are going to get tough before they get better: "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places."

I don't know what hard situation you are facing, My Dear Friend; but rest assured that He IS still in control. By simply joying in our salvation, He will give us the strength to endure and the feet to walk in high places.

"Why" you may ask? Because He said so.

Simply Studying,