Tap the brakes Habakuk

Allan Stanglin has started a three week sermon series over the three Old Testament chapters of Habakuk. Each morning's sermon will tie into our small group church discussion that evening.

Sidenote: Legacy adopted a weekly small group church program in January of this year. We meet in small groups (oh, that's why they call it that) in each other's homes.

This week we concentrated on the first chapter. Our group focused specifically on how we react when things aren't fair. Also, the concept of complaining to God. More on that later...

From Habakuk 1:

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 entire passage screams "WOE IS ME" but for a moment we talked about the statement from verse 4 - "and justice NEVER prevails."

I doubt Habakuk lived in a time when justice never prevailed. Perhaps it was seldom seen by him but never is one of those words that usually isn't accurate from a frustrated person's point of view (note the use of the word usually). We just have those instances, those times of life when things just aren't going our way. Words like never and always and nothing seem to enter our vocabulary but they aren't truly accurate when you step back and take a look.

So this week we've adopted Habakuk-isms (awkward, I know) at our house in an attempt to curb our use of such exagerations.

Case in point. With spring and it's rains, we've been noticing some small ants coming in around the back doors. They're not swarming or taking over the house, they're just going about their business. Shanna does a tremendous job of keeping the house clean but I'm sure word has gotten out in the ant community that we have four kids. To an ant kids=crumbs so they've made their pilgrimage. The lack of 'easy pickings' on the floor has led a few of them onto the kitchen cabinets. The traps are obviously attractive as the dog has eaten a few. The ones that weren't eaten by the dog seem to be doing the trick.

But one day Delanie walks in from school, notices a few of the invaders and declares "There's ants EVERYWHERE!" To which Dillon calmly replies in almost a whisper "Habakuk."

Hopefully this drill will become permanent and keep us all a little more in touch with reality. If it does I'm sure it will have tremendous effect on how we view our life and how we interact with others. Just think how confrontations with others would go if we didn't use phrases like:

You always/you never
I always/I never

Try and keep it real. If you don't, keep it away from Dillon. He will call you out on it with a subtle "Habakuk."