ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 10, 2020
I am Not Standing Still, I am Lying Wait*
Habakkuk 2:1-5
For there is still a vision for the appointed time; … If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Habakkuk 2:3
In the first chapter of Habakkuk, the prophet laments and asks the question many of us have been asking this year, “How long, O Lord?” We ask, we lament, and we wait for things to get better. And the waiting gets to be too much. So, we make a move, but we move too fast and we reap the repercussions of moving too soon. I understand, however, the motivation to act. One does not want to feel like one is just standing still doing nothing as the world goes on around them.
Yet, in chapter 2 of Habakkuk, the prophet used another tactic. After lamenting, the prophet waits and expects God to reply. “I will stand at my watch post, 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.” Both the watch post and the rampart are defenses used in battle. The waiting this prophet is doing is not about sitting around, it is about being ready.
God answers and tells the prophet that there is still a vision for the appointed time. God has not forgotten us. God hears us. God is still at work and we should be too. So, we stand at the watch posts God has given us whether it is a classroom, pulpit, youth center, or the streets. And we gird ourselves so that we are ready for the changes that God will empower us to make.
Dr. Annie Lockhart-Gilroy
Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology
*Title taken from Hamilton: An American Musical (Original Cast Recording)
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