How Long?

Today is day 17 of a 31 day blogging challenge with my friend and colleague reverendmommy, Robin Fitzgerald.We will be using a daily word prompt from katemotaung.com.

 

On a particular car ride from Cullowhee to Durham, I asked the same questions one too many times.  I didn’t heed the warning to not ask the question again, so my dad pulled over at the next exit.  Pulled into a Bojangles parking lot and told me to get out and walk around the car 10 times.  I begged, I pleaded, I cried, and I finished all 10 laps.  I got back in the car and have never asked the question again.

 

 

The Psalmist cries out, “How LONG, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1).  These words express a desire for deliverance and a plea for remembrance.  The phrase “how long” is repeated as an expression of suffering and the psalmist seems to relate suffering to God’s absence.  In moments of suffering we feel alone and we cry out, “how long?  Why?  Where are you?”  Our ability to ask in many ways points to our faith.  We ask, knowing there is not answer to the amount of time, but there is certainty in God’s presence.  For this reason 5 verses later the Psalmist is able to say, “I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalm 13:6).  Just as we cry out; we can sing because God is with us in our suffering.

I am still not a very good traveler.  Being still in a vehicle is a challenge; yet, I won’t ask how longer?  There is an end in sight.  The suffering of this world is temporary.  As painful as life might be, suffering will not have the last word.