Parents, How firm is your footing? In elementary school, I went to a special little school in an urban area right next to a Children’s Hospital. The school didn’t have any play fields, and we didn’t have a track, but we had a blacktop kickball “field”. On this field, we had glorious, fight-to-the end-of-recess kickball games any nice day that the teachers could take us outside. We had a small gym, but it was always hot and it always involved battle-ball or medical-ball (battle-ball with a twist - when hit, a person fell right where they were hit, and if the team “medic” dragged them back to the end line, they could play again... great game except for when the medic was tiny and the person hit was twice their size). Anyway, back to the outside utility space. In 4th grade, our school was invited to bring a track “team” to a meet on a real track with other schools in the area… I was asked to be in a “run off” for a spot on that team. I wasn’t a great runner, but for my school I was fast enough to compete for the last place on the team. I lined up with another boy and we were to run around the perimeter of the kickball field. The PE teacher said, “Go,” and we were off like a thundering herd of turtles. My little spindly chicken legs were going as fast as they would take me. I was competing to be the last fastest kid on the track team. I imagined myself in the Olympics, sprinting around the oval, headed for the finish line, neck and neck with the other last fastest kid at my school ...Until… rounding the 3rd corner, with my little lungs about to explode and my heart pumping out of my chest, I hit the gravel that the other kid had stepped in my lane to avoid, his foot hit my foot and the other foot slid in the gravel… It happened so fast, but at the same time, it felt like slow motion…I fell to the ground like a Kitchen Aid whisk turned sideways on high speed, rolling over and over… the ground versus skin friction winner was painfully obvious. The other kid finished the race with "the thrill of victory" and turned around to see me in "the agony of defeat," trying to stand up covered in skinned knees, hips, elbows and hands. Each raspberry wound was full of sand and small gravel. My hopes of 100 meter dash Olympic Glory had been dashed at the tender age of 9 on the rectangular track of our special little school blacktop playground.
The Prophet Habakkuk and his people were experiencing some really tough times. They were in a time of drought and famine and another nation would invade and take them into captivity. It challenged their faith, everything that had been important to them was being stripped away. They were losing their footing. But Habakkuk encourages himself and his people, urging them to keep the Faith and not give up their Joy in the Lord. He says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights..” Habakkuk 3:17-19a (NIV) Deer are very sure-footed, (unless of course they are on ice - reference Bambi or any number of deer-on-the-ice rescue videos on social media). During these challenging times of COVID and unrest, we hafta keep our Faith footing. The Old Testament prophet encourages us to keep hanging in there, that God will take care of us… it is how we will joyfully make it through. Even when we take an embarrassing tumble or we’re in really difficult times, God is with us and glad to be with us. Even when He disciplines His people, He is still glad to be with them. Habakkuk is not pointing to the power of positive thinking with these verses, he is just reminding us Who loves us and cares about us, that we are His people and we belong to Him. God has not forgotten us, He will make us surefooted again.
Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for you all!
