From Awkward to Weary to Frustrated
I'm not sure exactly when, but it happened a few weeks ago. You tell me if it happened to you, too. At some point, my mindset went from dealing with this as awkwardness to weariness to now just outright frustration.
Right now we're seeing a great deal of layoffs while being unable to see one another in our daily lives. Reports are coming in from our families and even our church family of people being in the hospital, families being prohibited from seeing them, and hospice being called. Some of us wonder if the jobs we do have will be ours for much longer.
A few weeks ago, these converged into an ache: I'm hungry.
Now you know, of course, that I have a love-love relationship with food. We're trying to get creative in quarantine, but I find my tastebuds wanting that italian sub from Pasqualinos. Yet this isn't the hunger I mean. Instead, it hit me that I'm hungry for the Supper. I'm desperately thirsty for hearing your voices singing praises to God. I'm dying to be with y'all at FRPC.
So I'm frustrated. I'm "hangry" (hungry and angry) in the spiritual way. And just like regular hunger, the longer I go, the "hangrier" I get. Yet, as usual, the Word supplies my need. We read in Habakkuk 3:17-19:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Yahweh;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Even though these terrible and awful things happen, even though I don’t have what I want, even though [insert bad thing here], the prophet reminds us there is one remaining thing: Yahweh.
Here’s what stands out to me about this passage. In a situation wherein we may find ourselves devoid of any hope or joy due to the resources of this life and present age, we can and should always seek Yahweh instead. Even if everything around me should cease, and I should fall ill or die, I can always find joy in Yahweh’s salvation. Even if I’m frustrated, hangry even, and cannot stand this quarantine any longer, it is nevertheless true that Jesus Christ is always present, ever interceding, and persistently calling me out of dead works into his new life. Jesus provides me with the bread of life, that I would never hunger again.
Yet, this has always been the case, hasn’t it? Even in abundance, we dare not put our hope in anything less than God himself. Times of lack simply illustrate the desperation—the frustration?—more clearly, doesn’t it?
So, I don’t have 4 things for you to consider, a 3 step plan for reintegrating into society, or any eloquent wisdom to give today, friends. In the midst of my own lack and frustration, I simply offer to you what the prophet offers, what Christ himself gives freely. I simply point you to the joy in the Almighty Creator and Redeemer of God’s people, Jesus Christ. No matter your circumstances today, seek after Christ. Only he can satisfy. Only he can deal with the frustration. Find him, therefore, on every page of the Word.