Today I Learned: It’s Time for Lament

Recently, I was honored to be a guest preacher at my church. No, I am not ordained – I just had something to say. What I had to say is that lament is appropriate when we are suffering and that God will not abandon us in our pain, grief, or anger.

I don’t know about you, but I am frequently lost as to how to respond to our current situation. We are losing many of our democratic institutions to an administration that does not care. We see our people illegally detained, beaten, even killed, by federal agents, and there is no justice for them. Our scientists and journalists are under siege. Our institutions of higher learning are being threatened. Moreover, we have lost many of our allies and all goodwill on the world stage.

I have protested all of the above, as I protested the Vietnam war and marched for women’s reproductive rights in the past. I am older now and cannot march, but I can stand up and be counted. Still, it does not seem enough, and I find myself very close to despair.

Here is where lamentation comes in. The Psalms are full of prayers of lament. In a prayer of lament, the psalmist cries out to God in their suffering. Note, they do not complain about God, but they lament to God. They cry out in grief and pain and address God directly. It is with the trust that God will not abandon us, no matter what, that the psalmist can turn to God in their distress. After all, we have been assured that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

I know that many of us can relate to the psalmist at this time, in this place, when our faith in some of our most cherished institutions is being severely challenged. When we ask: “How long, O Lord?” and “Where are you, God?” and “Where are the good people?” We lament. And we try to avoid despair.

Recently, I came across a post on social media that asked, with regards to current events, “Is anyone else experiencing debilitating amounts of dread?” and the response from another reader was, “No, because I’m just broken and dead inside these days.” People of faith believe that God can give us new life even when we feel dead inside, beaten down by our current circumstances, unable to do what is required, unable to even care. What we must do in these times, is to remember that we are beloved by God and to pray. And that prayer may well be a prayer of lament.

An example of an appropriate lament posted by the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the following. It was posted in the days following the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, a truly dark time.

It reads:

“For a nurse murdered, for a mother shot, for a toddler detained.

God, we lament. After grief, give us the strength to love.”

This, we can do. We can lament and turn to God for the strength to continue with love.