'c' is for cookie

i finished reading habakkuk this morning, and no, i am not merely typing this blog because the name "habakkuk" is fun to say. (besides, it's much cooler in swahili, where the spelling is "habakuki" - which totally eliminates the way we oftentimes try to pronounce it and forces us to sound like we are offering someone a snack... 'ha ba cookie'?)

anyway, habakkuk starts out the book complaining. no, not about his name, but about wickedness and how the wicked prosper... but by the end of the book he's talking like this:

"though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet i will rejoice in the LORD;
i will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places." hab 3:17-19

what changed the complaining to patient trust and joy? habakkuk got his eyes on God instead of the problems... he saw "His splendor... His brightness... His hand... His power." sometimes, an attitude change is as simple as a change of gaze.

i also used some of yesterday's "stuck inside because of ice and snow" to read part of "the God who is there" by francis schaefer. i think that in a way, the following quote ties in nicely with the point this blog is trying to make:

"the new theology... knows nothing of man being created in the image of God, nor of God revealing Himself truly in the Scriptures... probably the best way to describe this concept of modern theology is to say that it is faith in faith, rather than faith directed to an object which is actually there... modern man's faith turns inward. in christianity the value of faith depends upon the object towards which the faith is directed. so it looks outward to the God who is there, and the Christ who in history died upon the cross once for all, finished the work of atonement and on the third day rose again in space and in time. this makes christian faith open to verification and discussion."

so yeah... look at situations, look to me... depression/complaining. look to God... rejoicing/patient endurance.

"O LORD, i have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do i fear. in the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy." hab 3:2