Earlier this summer, I heard a message at church entitled "Yet" that has resonated with me ever since. (Shout out to Vince, who preached his heart out that day...literally) All summer long I have thought about that small word "yet." Such a little word word with such big meaning.
The message was taken from the book of Habakkuk in the Bible. Habakkuk, a prophet, prays to God, asking why God's people must endure such terrible treatment at the hands of the Babylonians. God answers him, only to reveal worse news--the Babylonians will continue to destroy, and will "advance like a desert wind, and gather prisoners like sand." Habakkuk answers God again by pleading, "I know you are still God, but could you tell me why this is happening?" God gives him more bad news--specific ways the greedy Babylonians will continue to destroy and enslave.
Do you get the picture? Habakkuk, God's prophet, is honestly talking to his God, and seeking to find out why the suffering of God's people must continue, and for how long? Habakkuk understands his people's fickle history, how they have disobeyed their God, and so many times have done the very thing God has instructed them not to do.
Sound familiar? It does to me. Of my own fickle, strong-willed history. Ouch.
Does God instantly rescue His people at Habakkuk's's bidding? Does He swoop in to rescue them before the Babylonians enslave?
No. He allows them to suffer for a time.
This is one of those truths that is difficult for me to digest. Especially when I see suffering first-hand, and up close. Why? Why must some people suffer so much, when others are allowed to live in wealth and comfort? Why are some children born into poverty or depravity, while others are born into love and excess? Why does life just seem unfair sometimes?
But, Habakkuk doesn't use my weak 3-letter word "why" in response to God's difficult-to-digest truth. Habakkuk uses a word I don't fully understand...but one that does give me hope and faith.
Yet.
Yet. The little word that can turn on a dime. The word that says, "I understand what is happening, YET I will believe..." The word that says, "I don't understand how God could allow this to happen, YET I will trust..." The little word that says, "I am so angry God allowed this sickness, this death, YET, I will hope..."
It's not that Habakkuk just ignores his emotions. His fear comes across raw and uncensored in response to the terror of the Babylonians God has just described to him. However, his fear is pierced with that 3-letter word...
16 I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.(Habakkuk 3:16)
Oh, and I love that Habakkuk doesn't stop with just 1 "yet." His 2nd "yet" is like a sign post he is pounding into the ground. A sign post for the people to see, and have their faith and hope restored:
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.(Habakkuk 3:17-19)
Oh, this "yet" makes me smile, in remembrance of how my own Savior has given me strength. How He has gotten me through times so difficult I never thought I'd make it. Yet, somehow, God led me through. I smile as I picture the simile Habakkuk has used to describe how God gets us through those difficult times--like a deer, who nimbly picks her way through a steep and rocky path.
THAT is the kind of truth in God I can accept. A God who saves us, gives us strength, and gives us exactly what we need to navigate the terrible--the feet of a gentle deer.
For now, for this side of heaven, when I am faced with those difficult-to-digest questions of human suffering, of the terrible suffering I see up-close, I will just have to choose to throw my lasso around that sign post Habakkuk pounded into the ground:
Yet.
I will have to hang onto that tiny word with all my might.
I might not always have the answers for life's big questions. I may not understand the things going on around me. I may not even like the things going on around me. But, I CAN hang on to a simple word. I CAN utter that little word when things get difficult...That little word that turns the focus off me, and onto a God big enough to handle all the answers.
