How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen!
Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4
I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Does Habakkuk’s complaint sound familiar?
I read an article recently describing the situation in Myanmar – driven out of the headlines by the war in Ukraine, but with countless people displaced and terrified. Violence is closer in Central and South America, and we can’t just wall ourselves off from it. Clamorous discord – we don’t have to look very far for that.
Habakkuk is writing about 600BC, when life in Judah was very difficult as a result of wars all around and sometimes over them, together with internal political conflict and incompetence. His response is perseverance: “For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.”
Faced with these sorts of challenges we might find this too pollyannaish – “oh, just wait and it will all get better”. But what is striking about so many of the terrible situations that we read about is how people do persevere; how they do keep going in bombed out houses; or not knowing what has happened to their children or parents; or having suffered terrible injuries. God does give us surprising powers to persevere, to have faith, if we accept that He is actually in control. In fact it’s not really even necessary to accept anything in our heads, this is not an academic test. When faced with real challenges something more basic kicks in which lies beneath our normal huffing and puffing about how difficult life is.
So we hear (Lk 17:5-10) how Jesus gives His disciples short shrift when they start complaining about how it’s hard to keep up with him: “just give us some more faith” – as though it was like a second helping of desert. His answer: “you’ve already had quite enough – get over it”. And, by the way, “stop thinking there is some merit in your putting up with stuff – you are expected to persevere – get on with it”.
This is not the Jesus we like to hear. We’d much prefer the “there, there, come to me, I’ll make it all better”. But as we know as parents, or may have observed in others that we would consider good parents, it’s not all cuddles and hugs; sometimes we do have to be left to stand alone, to get on with it. Except we know, if we allow ourselves to accept it, that we are not alone.
This time is is Paul who provides the more comforting perspective (2 Tm 1:6-8, 13-14). He, himself, is not in the best of situations. After all the disputes and dangers he has been through, he has finally been arrested by the authorities and is on his way to Rome to stand trial (which we can think of as closer to a trial in Russia or Myanmar than somewhere nearer to home). But his advice to Timothy: “bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God… the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit”
We know life can be hard. We are fortunate that in most cases it is not as hard for us as it is for many others. But we are called not to despair, but to hope and faith and perseverance – and in all this to support each other, as Paul supported Timothy, as Jesus supports all of us, even if sometimes he does play the stern parent.