Habakkuk revisited

Habakkuk 1:2-4 speaks to me.

How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?

Across this world filled with more than 7 billion people, the number of souls crying out in pain is staggering. You can find them in every corner of the globe, in every city and village in every country. They cry out in poverty. They cry out in sickness and disability. The rich and powerful ignore their cries.

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?

Violence is plentiful in our times. Just yesterday, a passenger jet carrying 298 people was deliberately shot down by people looking to create mayhem in Ukraine. Among the dead are 100 top AIDS researchers. Meanwhile, bloodshed in the Middle East grew as Israel sent troops into parts of Gaza. Most of the victims, also nearing 300, have been civilians caught in the crossfire. 

Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? 

Famines and wars plague many African nations. Egged on by some Christian leaders from America, Christian leaders in several of these nations work to persecute homosexuals as if they are responsible for the chaos in the region. Imagine instead if they chose to witness to the everlasting love of God.

Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.

Blood continues to flow in the streets of Iraq and Syria. The "just war" promised by the United States only inflamed ethnic and religious tensions into civil war.  The atrocities are now too numerous to count. Refugees from the violence swell camps in neighboring countries. 

Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.

Children fleeing violence in Central America find hatred in the United States, which some call a "Christian nation." Political leaders demand deportation of the children that managed to survive the gauntlet of evil, knowing full well they will return to oppression, exploitation, and death. Many of these same politicians make a big show of their opposition to contraception and abortion because they are "pro-life." Their hypocrisy mocks God but they give it no thought.

The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.

The children of God suffer at the hand of their brothers and sisters and dare ask why God does not save us from ourselves.