The lot has been cleared twice now. The first time was five years ago, when the money from the partner plan came in and the family stood on the red dirt and imagined the verandah. Then school fees went up, a car died, a parent got sick, and the bush grew back. Last month someone cleared it again. The foundation marks are still there, faint lines of white string between rusted pegs. And the question sits in the back of everyone’s mind: will this house ever actually be built?
Many families live with a plan that has stalled. It might be a house on family land, a first home in England that keeps slipping out of reach as prices rise, or a retirement house back home whose second storey has waited ten years for its roof. The plan is still there. It just isn’t moving.
A vision with an appointed time
The prophet Habakkuk lived in a stalled season of his own. He looked at the injustice in his nation and asked God why nothing was changing. God’s answer came with a promise: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come” (Habakkuk 2:3, NKJV).
We rightly draw comfort from that verse. God sees the whole picture. He knows when a thing should happen and when it would do us harm to have it too soon. A house built in a rush, on borrowed money, before the family is ready, can become a burden rather than a blessing. Sometimes the delay is protection we cannot yet see.
But Habakkuk’s book does not stop at the promise. It goes on to a song, and the song is where the prophet’s faith really shows.
Joy before the harvest
Habakkuk 3 ends with some of the most honest words in Scripture:
“Though the fig tree does not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labour of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls — yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17–18, NKJV)
This is a farmer’s list of disasters. Every source of household income in his world has failed: fruit, oil, grain, livestock. The vision has not yet come. And Habakkuk decides that his joy will not wait for it.
For a family with a stalled house plan, this is a hard and hopeful word. Hard, because it asks us to stop postponing gladness until the roof is on. Hopeful, because it says joy in God is available on the bare lot, in the rented flat, in the house whose upstairs is still only a drawing. The vision may tarry. God does not.
Feet for high places
The song’s final verse gives an image anyone who has built on a hillside will appreciate: “The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills” (Habakkuk 3:19, NKJV). A deer on a steep slope is not lifted off the mountain. It is given feet that can climb it.
That is often how God helps us with stalled plans. He does not always remove the obstacle. He gives us feet for the terrain. In practice, that might mean:
- Revisiting the plan honestly. Is the house we drew five years ago still the right house, or could a smaller first phase get us moving?
- Doing the unglamorous steps that cost little: keeping the land clear and the taxes paid, getting approvals in order, saving steadily even if slowly.
- Refusing to borrow beyond what the household can bear just to end the waiting.
- Talking as a family about what the delay has taught you, and what you are grateful for already.
- Asking whether the vision was truly God’s, or partly our own pride, and being willing to hold it more loosely.
Waiting with open hands
Consider a couple who have been waiting a long time to build. One of them visits the lot every few months and comes back discouraged. The other has started a small habit: whenever they go, they stand on the pegged-out spot where the kitchen will be and thank God for one specific thing — the land itself, a year without debt, the children’s health, the neighbour who keeps an eye on it. The lot hasn’t changed. Their hearts have.
Habakkuk’s vision did come, in God’s time. Yours may too, in a shape you don’t yet expect. In the meantime, the fig tree’s bareness does not have to steal your joy.
For reflection
- What plan in your household has stalled, and how has the waiting affected your joy?
- What would it look like to “rejoice in the Lord” before the vision is fulfilled?
- What is one small, faithful step you could take this month?
A prayer: Lord, you know the plans we have made and how long we have waited. Keep us from rushing ahead of your time or giving up on your goodness. Though the fields are bare, we will rejoice in you. Give us feet for the hills we have to climb. Amen.
Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com
Visit our YouTube Community ↗