March Snow - Time to Cling and Cope!

Good grief, will this winter never end? While I can't believe that I haven't posted a blog since January, I can believe less that there are at least 4 inches of snow on my deck on March 14! Yet as the little wildflowers grow up in the mountains despite all odds, I also believe spring will push through! However, I probably won't get to enjoy my hyancinths that were already pushing through last week when the first hint of spring appeared with temperatures in the 60's! There are some calamities that we just have to deal with!

How do I know spring will come? Well, it always does! The ebb and flow of the seasons promise it, even though there is not one bit of evidence of it today!

Similary, in my bible study where I listen to all sorts of sometimes heartbreaking prayer requests, with the people I work with at Love, Inc. who have come there because they are destitute or have just been released from jail, and even just reading the newspaper, I can see where many see no evidence of things being okay. There is little to base the belief that "all things work together for good to those who love the Lord" (Rom. 8:28) when faced with their calamities. Tell that to the little lady I just met who has two children and not one stick of furniture in their house - their clothes are in piles on the living room floor. They've been living off of child support and a settlement from a car accident while she waits to see if her disability will kick in since her arthritis is keeping her from working as a home health nurse. Tell that to my friend who has just been served divorced papers. Tell that to the mother in a nearby town that left her 18 month old for just a minute sitting in the bathtub and came back to a lifeless drowned little body. And my friend who is battling the deterioration of Parkinson's. Tell that to those in the aftermath of the devastation after the earthquake in Japan.

And yet, for those of us who believe, we do have evidence that all will somehow work to the good. It's not as easy to feel as the temperature that is supposed to get to 70 even this week that will indeed let us know that surely this was the last snow. But it is in the peace that passes understanding that Phil. 4 tells us about. And I DO see that in many of those people I just mentioned. Unbelievably, amazingly so!!!

I've been studying As Silver Refined by Kay Arthur in my Ladies Bible study which tackles the hard question of God allowing suffering. She reminds us that Habakkuk offers us an example. We learn that he too questions God: "Why art Thou silent?" (Hab. 1:13). But then we see that he listens for an answer. "I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me. (Hab. 2:1) And then I am drawn again to that lovely verse of belief that says, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines...yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength." (Hab. 3:17-19). And then he concludes that "He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places." (Hab.3:19)

We may not understand it, but we can believe it - even though we don't get the answers we want on earth - and our winters of suffering seem to last so long - even until the next life! BUT, like Habakkuk, we can believe even if the fig trees of our desires should not blossom, we have our salvation and our spring WILL come! And in the meantime - He'll teach us to walk, developing the kind of feet that can find the wildflowers even admist the snow, that kind of walking that takes us to our high places that we can cling to even in the worst times of waiting.

That's why I go to Bible study every week. That's why I can offer the bible verses I bring to those destitute people at Love Inc. and to my friends who suffer. Because if they can put those verses in their heart then they too can believe their spring will come! It's the only thing that makes any sense, that can bring hope out of hopeless situations. This study on Habukkuk brought a poem to my heart...

Coping and Clinging

Though the fig tree should not blossom.

and there be no fruit on the vine, (Hab. 3:17)

like Habakkuk our model,

let me be inclined

to still praise You, Lord,

to recognize my salvation, (Hab. 3:18)

to realize no circumstance

can result in its cessation.

No heights or depths can rob me

of my reason to rejoice.

No matter what I suffer

I always have the choice

to turn to the God who is my strength, (Hab. 3:19)

who gives and takes away.

We don't understand it now

but we are promised that someday

all our tears will be over

if we trust Him now on earth.

In life or death or suffering,

He's promised a new birth.

Right now it's still a mystery

how our refining can work for good. Prov. 17:3, Rm. 8:28

So it's by faith we must live

until it's understood.

But if we grow quiet enough to listen,

we can hear Him in our pain

and believe down deep inside

somehow He'll use it for our gain.

For that peace that passes understanding, (Phil. 4)

He gives even as we wait.

If we submit and leave all to Him

we can anticipate...

That if I will keep watch, He will speak to me. (Hab. 2:1)

He'll lead me to high places. (Hab. 3:19)

Though my earthly walk is treacherous,

I can rest in His embraces.

For He's promised He has plans for me,

to give me a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)

So whatever He's put in my path,

I can cling to Him and cope.

- by Sherrill Schlimpert, March 2011