Thursday, February 18
Several years ago Bishop Alard came to Holy Spirit for Confirmation services and in his sermon that day he said the newest four-letter word in the English language is “WAIT”!
In one of today’s readings, the psalmist despairs that people are disobeying God’s law and the “bad guys” are getting away with it; Habakkuk is also deeply disturbed that God’s people are suffering while the wicked go free. Both must ultimately have faith that in God’s time, not their time, those who trust God, pray, and remain loyal will see things come right in the end and the evil-doers will be judged accordingly. We’ve all heard sermons where the theme was “God’s time is not our time.” Still, when we are faced with very difficult situations in our own lives, it is just as difficult for us as it was for the psalmist and Habakkuk to wait patiently for whatever it is to come to a conclusion whether it is the outcome we prayed for or not.
For me personally, it is heartening to know that even persons whose writings were chosen to be in the Bible were sometimes frustrated waiting for God to act – after all these centuries, we are just the same as the biblical characters. And, even St. Paul was sometimes impatient and frustrated because some in his churches were not behaving themselves or because of his own personal sufferings. But in today’s reading from Philippians he says, “...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on to the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Would that I could keep this in mind when circumstances have me thinking I just “can’t wait.”
Virginia McGarvey