Trusting

For a few days, I have been walking my dog Honeybun without the Hiphound brace. Using the brace was the only way she could walk more than a half block for the past 6 months. Whatever caused her inflamed nerve to press against her narrow vertebrae seems to have subsided, the meds are working, and she walked 2 miles without the brace yesterday! I watched her carefully this morning, but she was just as chipper and un-lame as the day before. It is very encouraging to see her leading a more sedentary, but relatively normal life. When she first collapsed from the as yet unknown condition a year ago, things looked bleak. Through it all, she never seemed to stop trusting us. She submitted to the vet, the pain, the meds, and finally the ignominy of the brace that makes her look like she is wearing hot pants.

There is another interesting development in her psyche. Understandably, since we found her as a starving mass of skin and bones, she has always inhaled her food. Her meals were always the highlight of her day. She still loves her meals, but lately when I put her food down, she saunters over, sniffs it, and looks at me as though asking permission or checking to see if something better might not be coming. After a moment, of what appears to be perplexity, she eats.

I don't know if she is growing senile, or if she finally realizes after 5 years of living with us that she will never be left to starve again. She finally trusts that her needs will be met, the other dog will not steal her food, and she can enjoy a more leisurely dinner hour.

Trust. The presence of trust is so critical. It is critical to a calm and happy dog and it is critical to harmonious human relationships. It takes a lifetime to build and a moment to shatter. Trusting that God is good is one of the most important premises of "resting in God". When so much that is not good appears to be raging with increasing wrath, it is not always easy to keep trusting. How does one trust in something that is unseen, especially when the world seems to be crumbling? How is Job of the Bible able to say to God, "Yea though thou slay me, yet will I trust you," after God stands by as Job's family, livelihood, and health is wiped out?

Habakkuk has a similar situation as Job, though on a less personal level. Habakkuk sees the worship of God grow cold, idolatry, violence, and evil is rampant. He cries out to God in chapter 1, verse 4, how long will we have to tolerate this evil? When do you intend to take action??? God answers in chapter 2, verse 4, "....the righteous person will live by faith."

I know me. I suspect had I been Habakkuk I would have a spent a very long time complaining and asking how can I trust and be faithful when every evidence of God's presence is so blotted from my vision? But that is not how Habakkuk responds. He says, "Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy." (3:2)

Well there are some keys in his response in how to trust God when circumstances do not engender trust. To hear of God's fame, we need to read of what He has done throughout history. Fortunately, thousands of years of faithful people's record of His goodness is readily available to us in the Bible. Secondly, stand in awe of His deeds. Look around at the miracles of creation, of life, of beauty, of love, and especially of reconciliation and atonement through Jesus. And finally, reflect on His mercy. We deserved wrath. We received mercy.

At the end of the book of Habakkuk, he seems to truly grasp that he can trust God's goodness, even when goodness seems only a distant dream. It is not what God gives us materially that makes Him good. It is that He longs to be in communion with us, to give of Himself. No matter what happens in the world around us, God never ever fails to give us His presence.

Honeybun never leaves my side. Even when she could barely walk, she would heave herself up, and stumble to be near me. I could learn a thing or two about walking with God from my Honeybun.

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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. (Habakkuk 3:17, 18 NIV)



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