My mind went time-traveling one morning this week, back to the early 1980’s (which, by the way, seems a lifetime ago).
I saw myself sitting in a hospital waiting room.
Young wife.
Young mom of two.
Three days earlier my husband had received a dreaded “C” diagnosis.
And, with what seemed like a snap of the fingers, and a literal U-turn on the highway (we were headed home to Pagosa from Phoenix, when we got the initial news), he was now in surgery….and, I sat waiting for news from the doctor.
Waiting doesn’t come easily for me.
Patience, a virtue I desperately needed then, and even now, alluded me…
Other than the hard of the waiting, I found my heart with a strange, settled peace the Lord had given as a gift, that Monday morning.
I wasn’t worried as much about what the news from the doctor might reveal, as much as I didn’t like the waiting…
I wanted to know what was coming…
What were our next steps…
What was the new season we’d soon be navigating…
Life, for us, had been quite an adventure to this moment…
From high school sweethearts, to navigating our final years of college and basketball as newlyweds, to a year of ministry with Athletes in Action (CRU), and on to my husband’s professional career (short-lived as it was at this moment)…
Our life had seemed a bit of a whirlwind.
We often shook our heads reflecting on the truth, “There’s never a dull moment…”
But, there is always an “advent” in every adventure…
The coming of something new.
So, here in this “waiting room” I waited. A new advent was on the horizon…
With surgery, we’d enter the coming of a new season, and I was wondering just what this one held?
Of course: Every Advent. Every Coming. Every Arrival. All require a season of waiting.
What took me back to that waiting room was the passage in Habakkuk where I landed this week…
That particular morning, as I waited for the doctor to complete the surgery, and come fill me in on what next might look like, I picked up my Bible to read where I’d left off in my “Read the Bible Through in a Year” program.
It was the exact same passage in Habakkuk (3:17-19):
It couldn’t have been a more timely passage on that morning in St. Luke’s waiting room;
and, it was timely when I read it this week, too.
Once again, I feel like I’m in a waiting room.
Advent is near…
A new adventure is coming…
And, I’m anticipating the Arrival.
So was Habakkuk when he penned these words.
He was waiting.
The Lord was about to move.
Habakkuk has just remembered (3:1-16) how the Lord swept through Egypt, delivered His people, brought salvation, victoriously conquered the land He’d promised His children, and because of it all, Habakkuk undeniably believed the power of the Lord, and the guarantee of His promises.
The Lord would do the same again…
Because of this, Habakkuk’s prayer of remembrance turned into a song of praise!
As he focused his eyes on the God who would come – the Divine, Conquering Warrior – the “even thoughs” of hardship turned to the “yet” of worship.
So, in the now of the “even thoughs,” Habakkuk saw the “then and there” of God’s Victory.
It was enough to lead Habakkuk to his finest words of faith:
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation…
I will sing songs of joy to God, my strength…
I will praise Him, the God of my soul’s spiritual delight…
I will rest in Him, the God who will make my feet steadfast, swift, and sure…
And, I will wait PATIENTLY for Him…
There is power to be found in the “yet” of rejoicing!
The yet of rejoicing led Habakkuk into patient, quiet rest in the midst of the wait!
When Habakkuk looked around he saw everything about to fall apart…
When he looked within, he trembled with fear (vs. 15)…
But, when he looked up, he saw God, his heart filled with faith, and all the wondering and worry (chapter 1) regarding the “even though” of tomorrow vanished.
This is the best way to Advent!
Remembering the past of the Almighty, puts the “even though” into perspective, so that in the here and now, we can “yet praise Him.”
In praise, we can rise to the heights with God –
That’s one more Advent lesson I’ve learned from this little book in the heart of the Old Testament.
As, Warren Wiersbe says in his commentary,
“If I were Habakkuk, and my legs were trembling, I’d find a safe place to sit down and relax, but Habakkuk began to bound up the mountain like a deer! Because of his faith in the Lord, he was able to stand and be as sure footed as a deer; he was able to run swiftly and go higher than he’d ever gone before. This is one reason why God leads us into waiting rooms (of trials), they draw us nearer to Him and lift us above the circumstances so we can walk on the heights with Him.”
To walk by faith, Habakkuk tells us, is to focus on God’s greatness of glory, while we wait.
In the middle of a waiting room, a lifetime ago, I remembered the gift of peace those words brought…
…and the gift of faith in the midst of the wait.
AND, how, as I read them, began putting them into practice, sUrPrIsInGlY, the wait got easier.
These words allowed me the uncanny ability to take one day, one moment, one step at time into the advent of our next adventure with the Lord!
There’s an advent in every adventure with Jesus…
There’s power in the “yet” of praise…
Rejoice in the God of your salvation this advent!
Remember, He is coming again!
Advent is near…
