How Long, O Lord?

As repeated scriptural refrains go, it is far from favourite for most people;
“How long, O Lord?”
It might not be anyone’s favourite, but it is cried repeatedly in scripture and consistently in history.
Maybe you are beginning to cry it now.

It’s been a month, or slightly more of lockdown. It has been long enough now that you can think back to a month ago and experience things that happened then as memories. And yet. Here we are. Everyday people ask our Prime Minister and anyone who seems to have authority, “How long will this be?”

Of course the answer is, “How am I supposed to know?”, but that would not be a politically astute thing to say. Instead the answers range from, “We must stay the course. We have done well and can’t give up now”, to “It will be weeks yet, but we will be able to get through this.”

Maybe Prime Ministers and Public Health Officials cannot give straight answers. Probably they really don’t know. We just wish that they would. If they could tell us how long we could handle it better. If we just knew what we were facing.

Through all of history people who believe in God and many who don’t have been asking God, “How long, O Lord?”
In the 89th Psalm it is, “How long O Lord, will you hide your face from me forever?” That’s rough.
In the 13th Psalm it is, “How long, O Lord will you forget me forever?”
That’s David. David was one who God said had a heart after God, and David cried out – “Why are you absent? How long do I have to endure this?”

One of my favourite people is a friend named Jean who has had not the easiest life, if you want to know the truth. Her husband had a stroke a number of years ago and he was confined to a care home after that and then he died too young. One of her children battled addiction and all that addiction can entail.
For years I cried out for Jean, “How long, O Lord?”

I saw Jean this morning. She helps support various causes and in the past has helped her son by collecting bottles in the neighbourhood. On recycling day we put aside our collectables for her and sometimes I see her those mornings and we chat.

Her son, the one who battled addiction, has been clean for years now. He did some work for us in our yard not too long ago. He has his own company now and he is an amazing worker. He is one of the sweetest people you could ever know.

Jean talked to me about her son today, about how happy she was for him, about how great he was doing, about how thankful she is.

“How long, O Lord?” If you are not crying it, someone in the neighbourhood is.
One of the things that you can do to help in this time is to cry it out on behalf of others.
I cried for Jean for so long that I felt weary, and I could only imagine how she felt. And Jean was thankful then, even as she cried out. Jean is thankful now, even as she prays in gratitude.

Every day, all over the world, people are crying out , “How long, O Lord?”

If I am feeling it now, if you are, then maybe we ought to be asking God to humble us that we might identify with the pain and sorrow and anguish that people have felt so often, even while we never faced uncertainty like they had. Maybe we face uncertainty now. Maybe that can help us to reach out in love to others who have and are crying, “How long, O Lord?”

Amen