You would not believe if you were told!

Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days--You would not believe if you were told. - Habakkuk 1:5

Take time to stop and smell the roses. I could not even tell you the last time I remember SEEING roses, let alone taking the time to stop what I was doing to smell them.

An abundance of proverbs and words of wisdom exist, such as the one of the tortoise and the hare--all of which tells us to slow down and not let life move too fast.

They just forgot to mention the reality that life moves too fast to keep up anything that resembles a slow and steady pace. During our childhood, when we had gaps in our teeth and the most pressing problem in our life was cooties, this seemed possible that life was slow.

Then the real world came crashing down. Reality became that if you blink too slowly, you just might miss a full day of your life. Life is too fast.

The pace of life seems to be so fast that this life we “live” becomes more of an existence than really living.

While this is our “existence” here on earth, I want to really LIVE. I want more than to merely exist on this ball of earth and water for some number of years then call it quits and die. That sounds absolutely miserable.

I want to see those smaller, finer things of life. I want to see the bigger picture of this life, but frequently, it seems to pass us by too quickly.

I want to live for something. I already know I am living for the One who created all 'somethings'--the Lord Almighty, God. But in the daily commotion and jumble of activity that I call "life", where does God fall?

I mean between classes, homework, friends, sports, food and the mile-long list of things that consume each day, what do we have left for the One who created the Earth in His hands?

Even more so, how often do we just sit in awe of God? Think about it…He created us from nothing in the beginning. In His hands, all life was formed. Do we ever take a “stop and smell the roses” approach to slow down enough to see that is God working all around us?

Fact is, whether we see it or not, God IS working everywhere--in amazing ways.

The first chapter of Habakkuk starts off with him issuing complaints to God, he says, “How long, Oh Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Who among us has not said that?) He continues to ask God basically where He is and why is He not making things right and healing the people.

God’s response almost appears to not directly reply to what Habakkuk said, but maybe the greater meaning is what is most important. The reply particularly just tells Habakkuk to open his eyes, see what is around him and look--do not miss it.

Are you missing it? Are we missing it? Are we missing what God is doing around us?

I think it is realistic to say that we miss God working because we are so focused and consumed by our own worries and our own problems that we do not bother to look. We make ourselves blind to seeing what God is doing because well, we do not look for it. In our midst, God could be doing wondrous things and we let it pass us by because we set our attention elsewhere.

If God listed off what He was doing right now in your life and in this world around you--would you even know those things? Or would you be astonished because you had no idea that God was doing such things?

The disciples even missed what God was doing in their presence, when Jesus told them! They failed to see and understand what Jesus told them about what must happen to him. Welcome to the shortcomings of man. We cannot truly see all of what God is doing, or we would be God.

That does not say that God does not want us to play a part in His workings.

Truthfully, I believe this verse in Habakkuk presents us with a challenge--ask God what He is doing and more importantly, how we can contribute to His kingdom purposes.

John F Kennedy said ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. That should be our attitude with God! I think we should be asking more of what we can do to extend His kingdom’s cause opposed to our everyday little needs, which appear so miniscule next to God’s anyway.

Maybe the flow of life moves too rapidly for us to stop and smell the roses, but something we should not want to miss is seeing what God is doing.

Maybe, just maybe, if we looked for it--we would believe it if God told us what He was doing, because we are a part of it and because we are so focused in on God’s greater purposes that it is all we know.

Maybe God wants us to stop and see what we have been missing.

Observe! Be astonished! Wonder!