Why is this happening?
That’s the question most of us ask in seasons of suffering. In fact, hundreds of years ago, people began to refer to punishing someone as “giving them the what for.” When we experience pain or something that feels like a reprimand, our hearts cry out: what for?!
In “Finding Joy When the Fig Tree Does Not Bud,” Tom Sugimura invites Christians to shift their focus from answers to attributes. It’s not that questions are wrong. It’s that dwelling on circumstances can devastate us while looking to God’s unchanging character brings us hope.
“The what-ifs that pester our minds are the anthem of our anxiety, causing our fears to spiral in despair,” writes Sugimura. “Yet faith in God enables us to replace those thoughts with ‘even-thoughs.’ For if God was faithful in past tragedies, then surely he will carry us today.”
Reflecting on the story of Habakkuk, Sugimura illuminates God’s goodness both to people in Scripture and in Sugimura’s day-to-day life. And in doing so, he reminds us that while we may wish our circumstances would change, the best news in the world is that our God never does.
