Carry On Wayward Son

Who knew there was so much wisdom in a 1970's kitschy progressive rock song sung by a band named after a square state? Seriously! I've always liked this song (who doesn't?) but I had never really paid attention to the lyrics. They're good.

I have a history of writing late night posts on this blog, but with my current schedule, an early morning post is more feasible.

And, as usual, I can't quite figure out how to write what I want to say:

And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don't know

The older I get the less I know. My school teaches the students Christian absolutes in Bible classes: the same absolutes (more or less) that I learned in a different Christian high school on the other side of town. But as I hear these "truths" mouthed by confident Bible teachers, I wonder how these adults can hold so securely to such culturally-rooted concepts.

There are abolutes. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God is love. God is might. God is wisdom.

My list of absolutes keeps getting shorter as I get older. It's partly due to combining various ideas into larger statements, and it's partly due to recognizing how much I don't know.

This is a public forum, so I'm not going to get into details here, but, suffice it to say that I've recently been inundated by grief and pain. A little of it mine, most of it that of people I love. People close to my heart are in quicksand. Some have hold of a branch and--with the help of God and people--are slowly escaping the mire. Others are sinking blindly.

I'm in a time of grieving. As I bring friends, family and myself to the Lord, and present our pain to Him, He says "these are pains worth grieving." So I grieve. I'd like to think that my grief relieves others of some of their pain, but I don't really believe that. Grief seems the best way to honor their pain. To honor my own.

Hope survives. Barely. Joys shine bright in the gloom. But I'm half-sick of shadows.

How long, O Lord?

Habakkuk 1

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.

2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?

3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.

The Lord 's Answer
5 "Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.

6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people, ...

Habakkuk's Second Complaint
12 O LORD, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment;
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.

13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves? ...

Habakkuk 2

1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

2 Then the LORD replied:
"Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.

3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come and will not delay. ...

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea. ...

20 But the LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him."

Habakkuk 3

2 LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy. ...

13 You came out to deliver your people,
to save your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
you stripped him from head to foot.
Selah ...

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.