See if these words give voice to what you might be feeling as you watch or read your favorite news outlet:

“How long, Lord, must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence and you do not save? Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.”

Habakkuk 1:2–4, CSB

As Christians, we know and trust that at some point Jesus will return and clean up this mess, but until then we want to ask, “When?” Or we ask, “Why not now?”

God’s response to Habakkuk gives us a clue as to how God might answer today if he were to speak to us directly:

“For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it.”

Habakkuk 1:5, CSB

In other words, we, as finite humans, cannot possibly understand how God is working in the world. From our perspective little of what we see around us makes sense.

The question comes down to whether we will trust that he is working even when the opposite seems to be true.

Part of my struggle with this is a myopic view of things. I struggle to see past today when God, who is outside of time, has eternity in view.

The Apostle Paul speaks to this when he writes,

“For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.”

2 Corinthians 4:17, CSB

Dare I trust that God will see me through the hardships I am called to endure? Dare I trust that somehow even the nasty things that life brings are used by God for my good and his glory?

I believe, help my unbelief.

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