“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: These people say, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: “Is it time for you yourselves to live in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways.” (Haggai 1:2-5 Modern English Version)
When we were kids, we did not need an explanation, special child orientation, or a formal education to help us understand what was meant when our parents said, “Alright, already!” We did not need a formal dictionary or a publication of idioms in the English language to know what our parents meant! We got it! They were saying, “Enough already!” Or perhaps they were responding to our elongated excuses, offered in an effort to explain our “so-called” innocence of a charge they had against us in regard to breaking one of the family rules (disobedience). Whatever they meant, we got it right away! We stopped! If we were making too much noise, we stopped. If we were being lectured for the last time on a certain behavior, we stopped! If in our excuse making, we were really lying through our teeth, we ceased talking! We got it! If we were engaged in a major argument with a sibling over some minor matter and Mom or Dad said with a loud voice, “Alright, already,” we got it and we stopped immediately because the consequences for continuing would result in some type of parental discipline that included both a spanking and an order to “Go to your room!” If the schoolteacher left the room to talk with another teacher outside the classroom and the teacher heard too much noise made by our classmates (not us, mind you) that saw an opportunity to chat as opposed to concentrate on their books, the teacher merely had to say, “Alright, already!” And guess what? You guessed right, we stopped! One more example. When the person you were “going with” or “dating” got tired of listening to your excuses and instead of saying, “Stop lying,” he or she said, “Alright, already!” and followed that with a gesture that said, “Talk to the hand,” the excuse making came to a screeching halt.
Let me change our focus and make it personal and perhaps it will all sound familiar. Did you ever get the feeling that God was trying to tell you, “Alright, already” because you had continued to offer excuses as opposed to executing His will or because you had put more priority on your preferences as opposed to God’s principles being manifested in your life. Do you want to know something? By now you know that you might as will say “Yes” because I am going to tell you something anyway, right? Consider your ways. And when you do so, don’t refuse to act or react like the Lord is not telling you by means of the Holy Spirit! Just imagine His voice saying the exact two words in today’s title, “Alright, already!” Interpretation: “Enough is enough!” “Get it together and get back on track!”
It’s Saturday, so I’m sure you can find time to read the long passage below. Do so, knowing it will be profitable. Then, immediately, please share this with some of the young adults in your circle of friends and family! It just might help make our community a little bit better! Have a great Saturday! See you in church tomorrow! Be blessed!
“Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ and love having me on their side. But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast, and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’“ Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? “This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help, and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. “If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, if you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day as a celebration, if you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there—then you’ll be free to enjoy God! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.” Yes! God says so!” (Isaiah 58:1-14 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King