Habakkul chapter 1

These verses could have been written today. I look around and read of 18 young people who have been killed through violence this year alone, their parents left in sorrow. There is gun crime, vandalism, people are afraid to go into certain areas, others are feared because of their race, colour, age. There is famine, war, the wicked succeed and the good fail. How long, O Lord, must we wait for your return?

And then I remember that God is El Shaddai, He is the Lord, the King of Kings, the Almighty one, a God who never changes, is full of unceasing love, grace and mercy, slow to anger and quick to forgive. He is not willing that any should be lost, not one, so is waiting until such time as all who have the heart will come to Him.

In this chapter, Habakkuk asks the same things I ask myself today - where is God in the midst of all this violence and oppression? Where is God when the nations try to agree global warming targets and set 2050 as the deadline (42 years' time! Way to go - obviously they are really keen to get this one sorted….)? Where is God in the famines, in the earthquakes, the wars, the genocides?

And God answers me the same as He has answered Habakkuk, that He is doing something in this day that we wouldn't believe even if we were told about it, something so surprising, so unexpected. Because God is at work, even though it may not seem that way.

Take a look around and see what God is doing. He is at work every hour of the day. I hear Him at work in the mornings, when the sun is about to rise and the birds are singing the dawn chorus. I see him at work in the ever changing clouds and sky, in the wind and the rain, the sunshine. He is at work watching over each one of us - have you never had something happen to you that was completely outside your control, a complete fluke, so unlikely that you never thought it would ever happen, and you just know it was God? Take a look at the petals on a flower, at how the sun rises, the sea moves. Look at the good that is happening in the world, the way people's lives are being changed for the better, the way people work together when catastrophe looms, when there are floods, famines, the way the agencies get the food, tents, medical equipment and vital aid to those most in need.

All that it takes for evil to win is for good men (and women) to do nothing. It is easy to sit back and say that the world is evil, which it is, but there are many good people in the world, many trying to do their best to help their fellow man, and if we each sit back and do nothing, taking care of just our own, then it will be a case of every man for himself, first, last and always.

God is at work through each one of us believers. We may feel totally inadequate, but God will supply all that we need, we just have to trust in Him. We may not be called to do much, maybe just to keep a elderly neighbour company, to help a sick friend, maybe just to be ourselves, to let the love of God shine out through all we do. We may be called to be ministers, preachers, teachers, prophets, doctors, nurses, or maybe just someone who puts the chairs out on Sunday morning before church, makes the tea and coffee. We may be called to be missionaries, or aid workers, travelling to far flung lands to bring the gospel, to help those in need. Or our calling may be in our own homes and work places, where the way we live our lives make a difference to those around us.

Whatever we have been called to do, whether we know what it is or not, God is with us and He is at work. We may not notice it at the time, but the more you look out for it, the more you will see the hand of God at work even in everyday common place things.