“Make it plain . . . “ God favors clarity. Beauty and art flow from inspiration–and the clear expression of what he illuminates. There is a time to scatter rose petals among our words, but first comes content. Our words should carry a meaning so clear that even people in a hurry can get the idea.
“The revelation awaits an appointed time . . .” Strangely, the appointed time is seldom in the heat of battle. When social debate rages back and forth in public media we are exposed to the heat of passion, but there’s not much light. The prophets spoke to their day, but the prophetic message carried eternal weight. Neither human emotion nor intellect equal divine revelation–it comes only from God, and it comes only in his timing.
“Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come . . .” That’s right: wait for it. Habakkuk stationed himself. He also waited. In the rush to say something important we often miss the opportunity to hear something eternal. Waiting is the discipline of writers who speak to generations. You can speak to the moment or you can speak to the ages–you can rarely do both.
I believe in the inspiration of the scripture, but I don’t believe the Holy Spirit uses us as robots, forcing us to mindlessly scribble words we didn’t understand. We have a role to play, a role that compliments the word of the Spirit. It’s an inspired collaboration. Habakkuk shows us how it’s done.
This article on the inspired collaboration of songwriting originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
