Sometimes it’s just too much. The task you face is more than you can handle. Even with your best efforts, the desired result eludes you. You want to make things better; you want to make things right. And you know it’s never going to happen.

I often felt that way while serving on mission teams in Appalachia. Some of the homes we worked on, it would have been better in my opinion to burn them down and start over. But then we’d work all week and things would be improved. The roof didn’t leak anymore, the house would be warmer with new insulation and drywall, the foundation would be sturdier, and the porch would be stout enough to use again. But it was far from perfect.

It was hard work, done in the heat of summer. Sometimes it was frustrating.

We tried to make do with the materials provided.

There were no building plans drawn up, it was all improvisation. At best we’d make a pencil sketch, then bring stuff to the worksite and hoped it would fit.

At week’s end we’d celebrate, all the while knowing we had just scratched the surface in trying to solve the poor living conditions of these folks living in poverty back in the “Hollers”.

I feel the same weariness when I observe the fruits of sin and misery in the world today. Everywhere I look, there are people hating people and people hating God. They are self-centered, brazen, and relentless in demanding to live life unrestrained by any sense of morality and decency and obligation to their Creator. These word’s from the Psalms echo my thoughts:

“We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long. How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?” Psalms 74:9-11 (ESV)

Sometimes it’s just too much. But then I realize that’s only my impression, I have focused on the wrong thing. Yes, I see the problems of the world, and yes, I know I can’t fix ANY of them, my strength is too small. The Bible tells me, 

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

The “due season” spoken of here will be the time when our sovereign God makes all things right. He will do it, and His strength is more than sufficient. We should press on then, encouraged that our labor, our witness, is not in vain. It is accomplishing God’s purposes every day. The prophet Habakkuk was feeling weary. He was concerned with the moral and spiritual conditions in the land. He took his concerns to God, and God revealed what He was going to do. Habakkuk rested in God’s promise, and wrote these words which bring me great comfort.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:17-19 (ESV)