I.
While our focus Scripture for this week hears the prophet speak of his waiting for an answer to his complaints, chapter 1 lays out his complaints beginning with,

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble? (Habakkuk 1:2-3)

As you read the Prophet’s words and The Lord’s reply, can you sense the Prophet’s pain in his waiting?

II.
Habakkuk 2:1-5 (NRSVue)

I will stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faithfulness.
Moreover, wealth is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves
and collect all peoples as their own.

III.
Have you been there? Voicing a complaint, a need, a pain, a cry to God and not sensing God’s attention to you?

What do you do? Walk away thinking you are unheard? Pray more words? Cry more?

Or wait?

This passage from Habakkuk is posted during the season of Lent. A time we mark 40 days of waiting.

How will you wait? What will you do with your waiting time?

Maybe you have already heard the invitation to a “Holy Lent.”

What makes it holy this year?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}