I still believe

Habakkuk the prophet wrote, "Though the cheery trees don't blossom and the strawberries don't ripen, though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I'm singing joyful praise to God. I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. Counting on God's rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I'm king of the mountain."

It gets no better, right?

Have you explored your thoughts when things are not going well for you? Have you wondered what to do next? Have you pondered what holding on is all about when holding on is all you have?

I have.

I preached on this scripture 10 years ago in a little church outside Meridian, Miss., near my mother's house in late September. In Andrew's Chapel United Methodist Church that morning I preached for the first and last time in front of my mother.

We had evacuated there because of Hurricane Katrina. When I preached that sermon, I didn't know exactly what our house's condition would be when we went back. I didn't know what a lot of New Orleans would be like. We had been kept out of the area for a month.

But that morning from the pulpit I talked about the "yets in our lives.

Though the cheery trees don't ...

and the strawberries don't ....

though the apples don't ...

the wheat doesn't ...

though the sheep don't...

and the cattle don't...

YET I'm gonna sing.

Jeremy Camp's story is one to listen to.

When he first started hanging out with Melissa, she was fine but they we broke it off. He got a phone call six months later and a friend told me she had cancer. She was 20. Camp went and visited her. He walked into her room and she said, ‘Jeremy, if I die from this cancer and if one person gets to know Jesus as their savior because of it, it’ll all be worth it.’ That’s a true statement. I went home and wept. I said, ‘God, if you want me to marry her, I will.’

They got engaged. They didn’t know what would happen. She went through chemo. After they got married things were looking better but after the honeymoon they ran some tests and we were told the cancer had returned and spread. Jeremy said he dropped to his knees and cried.

She told him on the drive home, ‘Jeremy when I die I want you to find somebody.’ He told her that he didn’t want to hear it. He said he didn’t realize it at the time how much of a healing statement that was.

They had been married four and a half months when she died. She was 21. Camp said he was angry at God. "Once I was reading my Bible and I literally threw it across the room. I shouted to God, ‘I believed!’ because we did. We prayed because I know God can heal, I’ve seen sick people being healed.It’s like your face is shoved up against a picture and when your face is that close you can’t see the picture clearly. You’re like, ‘This is a mess!’ I remember God saying, ‘I’ll be with you every step of the way.’ I had my battles. I had my times of just being upset and God would show me, ‘Hey, I’m right here, I’ll walk you through this and it doesn’t make sense now but just trust me.’ That’s where faith come in - trust."

A while later, he wrote and recorded, "I still believe" about Melissa.

Seems to me it's awfully easy to sing when the good things are happening. Seems to me it's easy to praise Him when we think He's giving something tangible to us.

But, sing when you're down, when the paycheck doesn't equal the bills, when the deaths come, and when you just can't get a hand hold on life.

YET I'm gonna sing.

That's life. And love. And hope. And most importantly, that is faith.