It's not a question of if, but of when.

Scripture Verse that caught my attention today: Psalm 74:10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

Observation: this verse is more than a lament. Beneath it there is little if any real question of ‘if’ but only of ‘when.’

Application: On a side note, every day when I open up my word processing file in which my journal entries are typed, the date of the first entry pops up. I’ve journalled for years, but I began a new file upon beginning the call to the church I now serve. That date was August 25, 2005. So today will complete five years of service in this context. It also amounts to 319 pages of scriptural journal entries with ½ inch margins all around. Tomorrow I will start a new file.

Now, back to today’s reflection. It seems to me that the one difference between despair and optimism is whether or not one feels like there will ever be resolution. By ‘ever’ I mean ‘ever,’ meaning that even beyond one’s own lifetime counts if need-be. People of despair see no hope, ever. Optimistic people believe that there will eventually be some form of resolution, though they are hopefully realistic to know that the resolution desired may or may not come during their life-time and may or may not come at great cost and quite possibly after suffering and even death.

It occurs to me that some of the deceased folks that we consider great today never lived to see the ultimate affect of their work. A conservative talk-radio host is currently peddling the idea that we need another George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Well, in the first place I strongly suspect that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln each had some undesirable traits that have conveniently been forgotten over time. They were human, after all; no more or less a sinners than any one of us. But in the second place, there are no doubt George Washington/Abraham Lincoln-type people all around today. We just don’t recognize them because great people are often not recognized as such at the time. In fact, sometimes they are vilified at the time and not recognized as great until years later. So many people were upset at Lincoln that the country literally went to war over it. That’s why they say it takes at least 50 years to know for sure how the affects of any president and administration actually pan out.

Far greater, however, than any one president in any one nation of the world is the one the Scriptures refer to as God. This is the One who makes covenants with the sun and moon and delivered a whole people out of bondage in Egypt even before sending Jesus into the world to, as Paul says, set the world free from it’s bondage to sin and decay and obtain the freedom of the Glory of God. It’s not a question of if. It’s merely a question of when.

Prayer: Lord, there are times when I wish that your plans would unfold a little faster and a little more clearly. But that’s not my call to make. Help me to simply rest secure in the present and let you handle the future. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Scripture readings today included: Jeremiah 33-34, Psalm 74 and 1 John 5)