As I write this article, it’s wintertime. It’s not the beginning of winter with all the excitement of the first snowfall and Christmas lights twinkling in the dark. It’s January, and I have winter depression. It’s cold and dismal and dark and . . . did I mention it’s cold? It seems like spring will never come. At the end of February and beginning of March, I will eagerly cherish each tiny sign of spring from the green of the daffodils pushing up through the barren dirt to the tiny purple crocuses popping out above the snow. But that time seems far away. Now, it’s January and did I mention its cold? And dreary and the dark seems to go on forever. When will this dark time be over?
I think a lot of us look at the world around us and have the same depression that January brings to me. We feel beaten down by the harsh winds of cruelty and anger that have swept around the globe. We are disgusted by the blizzard of sordid scandals and lies that bombard us from every direction. Barren souls desperately search for warmth in illicit relationships while others look for happiness by trying to change the gender they were born with to create a new identity that just might lighten their oppressive feelings of wrongness. Sickness and disease stalk us, and violent attacks damage us as onlookers watch, wanting to help but impotent in the face of the barrage of pain and death surrounding them. This is a cold dark dreary world, and it has become more and more difficult to dress it up in pretty lights and happy songs. In desperation, we cry out to God, “When will this dark time be over?”
As the hearts of many grow cold and other men’s hearts fail them for fear, those of us who love Jesus cry out asking God to act. We want God to bring an end to our winter, and we do not understand why He has not rid the world of evil yet. Did you know that this is not the first time that God’s people have been impatient and desperate because God did not do what they expected at the time they expected it? Long, long ago, a prophet of God named Habakkuk cried out in anguish because he thought that God was taking too long to help His people. “How long, LORD, must I cry out for help, but you won’t listen? I’m crying out to you, ‘Oppression!’ but you aren’t providing deliverance. Why are you forcing me to look at iniquity and to stare at wickedness? Social havoc and oppression are all around me; there are legal conflicts, and disputes abound. Therefore, the Law has become paralyzed, and justice never comes about. Because criminals outnumber the righteous, whenever judgments are issued, they come out crooked.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4)
That sort of sounds like our society today, doesn’t it? Later in the book of Habakkuk, he again voices his frustrations with God, and then he says that he will just stay and wait until God answers him. In short, Habakkuk was complaining and whining and being impatient with God. Was Habakkuk wrong to tell God how frustrated he was with waiting? Of course not. In fact, he did exactly what we should do with our own fears and frustrations. He took them to the only One who could actually do something about his worries.
God did not mind Habakkuk’s complaints. In fact, He answered Habakkuk in chapter 2, verses 2-4. “When he answered, the LORD told me: ‘Write out the revelation, engraving it clearly on the tablets, so that a courier may run with it.” In other words, God was telling Habakkuk that His words were sure. Write them down and tell everyone! “For the revelation pertains to an appointed time—it speaks truthfully about the end. Though it delays, wait for it, because it will surely come about—it will not be late!”
Time out, God. What do you mean it’s not late when you have already said that it is delayed, and we have to wait? Oh, I see. You are saying that You always act at the right time, even if it seems like it is delayed in my eyes. You are saying that I need to trust in Your timing even if I feel overwhelmed by the waiting. Okay, we can go back to what You said to Habakkuk again.
“Notice their arrogance—they have no inward uprightness—but the righteous will live by their faith.” Who is arrogant? The skeptics who do not live by God’s law, the crooks, the oppressors; in short, all of the cold harsh wicked people that Habakkuk had been complaining about. Then God advised Habakkuk that the righteous needed to live by faith. In other words, in those dark and dangerous times when the people of God were living in a world full of bleakness, they needed to look to God in faith to survive.
When God answered Habakkuk, He did not tell him, “Just wait for two more years,” or “I am going to change everything really soon,” or “We’re almost there” like we sometimes do in an attempt to encourage each other. At first, that seems disappointing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God would give us a little hope, even if it is a bit of a white lie? No, not in my experience. I remember, years ago, I was climbing a little mountain called Gunung Gede in Indonesia. One of the young men who was traveling with me thought that I needed that kind of false encouragement, so he kept telling me that we were almost to the top. An hour later, he told me that we were almost to the top. An hour later, “We’re almost to the top!” After 5 hours of those little white lies, I was ready to strangle him. God respects us too much to give us false encouragement, so when He answered Habakkuk, He promised that His timing would not be late, but it would not be human timing. Habakkuk needed to trust God that He was working on a solution and would act with perfect timing.
Fast forward to today and our dark winter world. We long for Jesus to come and get rid of our problems and create a bright happy life for us. We cry out in pain and worry and try to encourage each other that Jesus will come soon and change everything, but sometimes it can feel like the message of Jesus’ soon return has been played over and over, and we are not any closer to the top of our winter mountain than we were at the beginning of our journey. However, we would be foolish if we believed that. We are close to the resolution of sin in this world because God has been acting to reclaim His people even when we could not see it. However, it does no good to offer each other false comfort by claiming that Jesus will act in the ways that we wish, but He has not promised. God did not give Habakkuk false comfort, and He will not lie to us either. God told Habakkuk, “Wait; It will come; It won’t be late.” In other words, it is not our job to know when. It is our job to trust that God has a plan that follows His timetable, and that plan will happen.
So, the first command that God gave Habakkuk was to wait for God’s plan to unfold, but there was a second part to God’s answer. He also told Habakkuk how to wait. He told him that the righteous live by faith. We are not to lose faith in God’s promises. In John 14:1-3 Jesus gave us a promise. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going away to prepare a place for you? And if I am going away to prepare a place for you, I will come back again and welcome you into my presence, so that you may be where I am.” We have Jesus’ promise in the scriptures. God’s word is sure. Jesus will come again and take us home with Him. Jesus wants us with Him. Until then, we must continue to trust God.
But waiting is so hard. Even nature is groaning under the burden of waiting for Jesus’ coming. The natural world seems to be suffering under a kind of winter of its own. Our world has become polluted and overwhelmed by human misuse. The news about the environment is all dark and dismal. Predictions of the extinction of numerous species of life, of destruction from natural disasters, and the draining of our natural resources surround us until we want to shout to God, “Why won’t you put a stop to this destruction of your creation!” Again, we are not the first generation of believers to deal with the results of sin on creation. Believers of the past also understood the stress that sin has placed on nature. Paul speaks about this problem in Romans 8:22-25. “For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. However, not only the creation, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit also groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For we were saved with this hope in mind. Now a hope that can be observed is not really hope, for who hopes for what can be seen? But if we hope for what we do not yet observe, we eagerly wait for it with patience.”
What does God again advise us to do through Paul? WAIT! Wait, with patience. We will be taken up with Jesus, so Paul tells us not to give up hope. When you hear how terrible the world has become, do not give up hope. Wait patiently. When you see the ugliness that sin has brought into our once perfect world, do not give up hope. Wait patiently. However, that is not all. In Romans 8:38-39, Paul goes on to instruct us in how to wait patiently, how to have hope. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.” What does God tell us to do? Remain in union with Jesus. Stay in God’s love and wait and hope because one day these broken down bodies of ours will be transformed and made new. One day creation will be restored to perfection. Jesus will come and make us new.
No matter how cold and cruel and dismal this world seems. . . no matter that it becomes so overwhelming that we want to shout out to Jesus, “Why haven’t you come yet? Why do you let these terrible things happen?” God does not answer our “Why?” with a reason. No, He answers, “Wait, patiently. Hope . . . because as long as you look to Jesus, nothing can separate you from His love.”
God knows how hard it is to wait with patience and hope and have faith in His promises. Jesus Himself wanted to make sure we would be prepared for His coming. He told us parables to help us understand how to handle the wait when we feel that He has delayed too long. In Matthew 24 and 25, He told us about the wise servant who watches for his master’s return and the ten virgins—five of whom were wise and kept enough oil for their lamps even though they had to wait so long and about using our talents to increase His kingdom and about the people who claimed to know Him but who did not serve Him. Each of these parables is light and warmth to ward off the chill of winter while we wait. Jesus knew how we would be feeling now in the coldness of this tired, twisted world, and He tried to prepare us for the wait.
Jesus also expected more of us than to sit around in depression waiting for winter to be over. He gave us a job to perform during the long dark evenings of this life. In addition, He provided us with a hope to cling to as we work. “Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). Our job is to make disciples and teach them to obey Jesus. Our hope is that we know that Jesus is with us each and every day. Through His Spirit, Jesus lives in us. We only have to take the time to listen to Him, to be with Him.
Just as I am longing for winter to be over, I am also eagerly waiting for Jesus’ soon return. However, there is a difference between my winter depression and my longing for warmth in this bitter world. Jesus is here with me now! In the middle of the hate and lies and cruelty and indifference and perversion, there is a pure, protective light that lives inside of me. Jesus is with me now—not far away—but living in me. I not only long for a day when I will see Him face-to-face, I am also eagerly spending my time with Jesus NOW. An amazing transformation occurs when I take my eyes off of this broken world and look at my Brother and Friend. My life becomes warmer and brighter and sweeter. Winter is pushed away in those times that I am with my Lord communing through His word and prayer and gazing on His beauty. Jesus does not leave us to wait alone. The author of Hebrews knew this cure for discouragement. “So don’t lose your confidence since it holds a great reward for you. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will you can receive what he has promised. For ‘in a very little while the one who is coming will return—he will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith, and if he turns back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.’ Now, we do not belong to those who turn back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved” (Hebrews 10:35-39).
I doubt that I will ever get over my winter depression, but I know that if I wait, spring will come. In the same way, I do not know when Jesus will come, but I know if I wait, it will happen. Why is it taking so long? I don’t know. I cannot tell you why Jesus has not come yet. However, I can tell you this. It does not matter if I do not know why. You see the plan for the salvation of the human race is not my plan. It is not your plan. It is not the plan of any government or of any human being or any church or any other human organization on the planet. The plan of salvation is God’s plan, and He knows every step and detail, every angle and curve. God knows what He is doing, and He knows when each step should take place. It is not my job to second guess Jesus. God has told me my job. Keep my eyes upon Jesus. Keep telling others that Jesus loves them. Keep faith with God. Follow the path and do the job He has given me. Then, trust Him to take care of the rest.