Habakkuk 2:2-4
And the LORD answered me:
"Write the vision;
make it plain upon tablets,
so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seem slow, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus once observed that "waiting for an outburst of civic courage among academics is steady work." The same can be said in many places and professions. It can be maddening how long it takes for people to just get a clue, much less act on that clue. And so we spend a lot of time mutter, moaning and/or screaming "How long, O Lord?" God's reply is found in today's verse: he will come at the right time. This is why faith and hope are bound up together. To really have confidence that God will act and is now acting in ways we cannot see is enough to sustain us. We live by faith in Christ who has acted and therefore will see that action through to the Last Day. The decisive battle was already won 2000 years ago. Now it's mop-up operations.
