Part three of three
In this final revisit to Habakkuk, the thing that stood out to me is the importance of in -person church attendance for knowing God in community. It’s something I didn’t consider before lockdowns and I wonder whether the slow return to physical fellowship plays a role in the Western world’s current decline in mental health.
I will celebrate in the Lord;
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
The Lord my Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like those of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights!
Habakkuk 3:18–19
Habakkuk listened to the Lord’s plan for Judah in horror and confusion, but his knowledge of God’s character helped him work out his response. Chapter 3 is Habakkuk wrapping his brain around the juxtaposition of mercy and judgment in the circumstances of imminent catastrophe in order to save. He pleaded with God for mercy within wrath in verse 3, then described the Holiness and Glory of God before painting the picture of the ultimate destruction of evil. And then he recognized God’s purpose in the chaos: crushing the wicked and saving His people.
Habakkuk’s circumstances didn’t change. History shows that Judah was captured by the Chaldeans who were then crushed by Babylon. It was a time of darkness and hardship and despair for the people, except for a few selected for a special purpose for the Lord (like Daniel and his cohort). Habakkuk left his worry at the throne of the Lord, saying, ” Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength” (3:18-19). This is hard teaching. Does God want us to be happy? I have to say, not necessarily. He wants us to choose joy no matter what the circumstances, even when the circumstances do not make us happy. When we choose joy, we are looking beyond our current situation to God’s eternal plan, one of rich mercy, great love, and complete restoration in the fullness of time (Ephesians 2:4-9, Philippians 4:4-13; Titus 2:11-14).
Habakkuk didn’t pretend to understand the hand of God. That’s good news for us. We don’t HAVE to understand. Habakkuk said, “I hear, and my body trembles” (3:16). He was not happy about what lay ahead. He knew it was going to be bad. And yet. And yet. And yet, he made a choice to respond with joy in the salvation and strength of the Lord.
Habakkuk was able to choose joy because he knew God. When we stop pursuing God, church becomes a cultural habit. Post-pandemic, church attendance remains down from pre-COVID attendance. Some people substituted online services for in-person and talk about safety from illness as a reason for remaining online. A few (16%) encountered life changes during the pandemic that made attending live services difficult or impossible. Others prefer the convenience of watching from home, and still others say they found other ways to meet God instead of attending regular Sunday services. A full 20% of U.S. adults say they attend less church than pre-pandemic, even among those who attended once a month before the lockdowns.
Interestingly, people of deep faith were less affected by the lockdowns than non-religious people in terms of mental health. Daniel Gillison of the National Alliance on Mental Illness postulated, “Faith is a powerful thing. Faith can help us make sense of our suffering. Faith can give us strength to persevere through hardship. Faith can help us connect with a community that cares.” Physical connection to a community happens consistently in a church, attended regularly and in-person. Church attendance is far more than a cultural habit; it is a means of drawing from and pouring into something greater than the self. When we each pursue God in community, the whole group grows stronger. Paul described the purpose of church in his letter to the Corinthians:
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
(2 Corinthians 4:6-10 NKJV)
Unless we actively pursue God, we will not be able to choose joy on difficult days. We will always pursue something, and if not the Lord, then what? Satisfaction? Security? Self-worth? If we go to church pursuing these things, we will not find peace or rest. We become increasingly discontent, which leads to increasing self-centeredness, something that perhaps keeps those who choose not to attend in person for the sake of convenience from making a greater effort. Self-centeredness does not lend itself to pursuing the things of God. Just ask Jonah.
Together, we do not lose heart, no matter what our situations, because we see through an eternal lens. Habakkuk, too, used an eternal lens, filtered by knowledge of God’s character. It’s how he was able to say at the end of his scroll,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills. Habakkuk 3:18-19
Pursuing God means knowing His character (something we should be learning at church) and focusing on His kingdom, which manifests by the ways in which we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). When we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength we can truly love our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40), both the neighbor in the ‘hood, and the neighbor in the community of church. Loving God and loving people is the greatest grace we can offer and is the key for choosing joy in spite of any circumstance.
Resources
4 Reasons People Haven’t Come Back to Church – Lifeway Research
How COVID-19 Affected Religious Service Attendance in U.S., 2020-2022 | Pew Research
Religious people coped better with Covid-19 pandemic, research suggests | University of Cambridge
The Intersection of Faith and Mental Health | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness
Defaulting to Grace 