Sometimes life tumbles in. Sometimes you really are on a bed of affliction. Sometimes the wolf is at the door. Sometimes your child is missing or sick or near death’s door. All of us have struggles and when they happen it is hard to imagine that anyone else has ever been so lost or felt so helpless.
600 years before Christ was a time when life was tumbling in for God’s people. A powerful army was bearing down upon them and would soon burn their homes, steal their property, and lead them away as slaves. Most of them would never be free again. Many of them would be killed. In times like that Habakkuk uttered these words:
“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, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
If the power of this verse is lost on us, maybe it is because we do not care if the fig tree buds or whether there are grapes on the vines. Most of us never grow food in our fields, nor have any sheep or cattle. Because those things are not a part of our experiences, we may not feel the pain in this verse. It might feel different if this verse were written in modern times and said, “though every grocery stores and restaurant closes down and every factory in America is empty, though the stock market drops to zero, ‘Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, will be joyful in God my savior.'”
Habakkuk is saying that his joy does not come from things and stuff and junk. His joy comes from God. His joy is not circumstantial, but is founded in the One who can change the circumstances.
When life tumbles in, when you are on the bed of affliction, when the wolf is at the door, find your joy in the Lord. He is the only source of joy that will not change.
Lonnie Davis
Haircuts are no big deal to me. I prefer to get them wherever I happen to be. I have two rules that keep me okay with this:
(1) Don’t cut it too short. If I follow this rule a bad cut grows out quickly.
(2) Blow the cut hairs out of my hair. If this rule is done then I do not have to go wash my hair immediately.
At hair cut time I went to the closest place. The lady cutting my hair followed rule one okay. As she was winding up, I had to remind her about rule number two. She picked up her hair dryer and started using it on my hair. Half through she got distracted and left the scalding wind blowing in one spot against the grain of my hair. It got hotter and hotter. Just before I yelped, she moved it away.
Finally she tried to comb my hair. I had one patch of hair that stuck straight up no matter what she did. You can guess that the unruly spot was exactly where she kept the hot wind blowing. Finally, she said, “Your hair has a mind of its own.” I did not respond.
I thanked her, paid the bill, and left a tip. I knew that eventually my hair would be okay. Later I thought about that patch of unruly hair. The stress of the heat and force of the wind left it abnormal. I thought about how the heat and the winds of life do the same thing to us.
A storm of life beats on us and we get bent out of shape. The storm passes, but we stay damaged.
“A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a
wise man keeps himself under control. “
– Proverbs 29:11
Jesus got angry, or so every angry person would have you believe. Usually folks who make this statement are trying to justify their own anger. After all if Jesus got angry, then no one can blame me for being angry. The problem is that this statement is grossly overstated.
To prove their point, angry people use the story of Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple (Mark 11, Matthew 21, Luke 19, John 2). Before anyone accuses Jesus of anger in that story, he or she ought to read the story again. Nowhere do the Scriptures say that Jesus was angry. Jesus was bothered. Jesus was troubled. Jesus was determined to stop unrighteousness. Jesus was not angry.
This is easy to understand when a person looks at what anger does. Anger puts a person into an impaired mental state and reduces one’s ability to grasp ambiguity or see any nuance in a situation. Anger gives us an adrenalin rush which clouds our ability to make judgments. This is not the emotion that Jesus was experiencing when he drove the crooked merchants out of the temple. Jesus did not “lose it.” With a clear mind, Jesus removed scam artists from the temple area.
There is one time in the Bible that says Jesus experienced anger. In Mark 3, the Bible says that Jesus “look around…in anger.” Read the text and you will find that the only way you know Jesus was angry is that the Scriptures tells us so. He did not hit anyone. He did not call anyone a name. He did not shout at anyone. He did not get red-faced. He was angry, but he dealt with it quietly and then he helped a man.
If you want to be angry like Jesus, then that is your example.