ULTIMATE TRUST!

My husband loves my name.  

Yes, I’m well aware that Beverly is an amazing name, and what’s not to love. 

Beverly was also my dear mother-in-law’s name.  I remember the first time my husband told me his mother’s name was Beverly, I thought, does he think this is a slick pick-up line…and of course, I didn’t believe him.  We were 15 and 16 years old.

But true enough, we had the same name and even the same middle initial.  

The reason I know my husband loves my name is that he ‘calls it out’ about 100 times a day.  

“Beverly, come here.”

“Beverly, I can’t find _______.”

“Beverly, do you know where my _________ is?

"Beverly, come help me."

“Beverly, where are you?”

…and when we are not in the same place, he’s calling me on the phone while I'm in the check-out line, at the doctor’s office, in the car, doing the laundry and other places I don't care to mention.

I think you get the picture.  It’s probably the same at your house too, if you insert your name for Beverly.

I'll be honest.  There have been times I didn’t answer him.  I heard his calls, but I ignored him.  (Insert mental picture of me with my chin touching my chest in shame.)

Over the years, (almost 45 years of marriage to be exact) I have gotten weary of him needing my help, tired of him not looking hard enough for something before he calls me, tired of being pulled from what I’m doing to look for a sock under the bed.  

So much for that whole “help-mate” thing.  (Again…insert mental picture of me with my head hanging in shame.)

Our nation has and is going through terrible things.  We have witnessed a pandemic, other sicknesses that just keep coming, injustice, death, and Christians being martyred all around the world.  

These are most defiantly extreme times we live in.  But we are NOT the first generation to experience these things.   

In the book of Habakkuk, devastating things were happening, and in verse 1:1-4 Habakkuk lists a few of these traumatic things.  These were times of violence, inequality, destruction of property, dissension, and fighting.  (Sound familiar?)

In Habakkuk 1:2, he even cries out to God, “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?”

Yes, Habakkuk questioned God, but the wonderful thing about this story (unlike my behavior), God did not criticize or find fault with Habakkuk’s cries.

Instead, God gives him hope in verse 1:5.  

“Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.

In the midst of wars, oppression, and death...God has a plan that is so amazing, if we heard it, we wouldn’t even be able to believe it.

I’ve questioned God before when I felt hopeless and helpless.  The good news is, he didn’t ignore me.  He didn’t say, “Oh, it’s her again.  Can’t she even do one small task on her own?  Can't she handle it without calling me?” 

Not my God!  

He would never!  

He cares.

He has a plan.  

He is working things out.  

Another passage in Habakkuk that thrills my soul to the core, and I pray, when difficult times arise in my life, these verses will be my ‘go-to’ place.  

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,    
and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,    
and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,    
and the cattle barns are empty, 
yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
    I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!    
He makes me as surefooted as a deer,    
able to tread upon the heights.

Habakkuk 3:17-19. (NLT)

My job:  ULTIMATE TRUST!

Gotta go, I hear my husband calling me.