Over the last couple of weeks our community has experienced a great tragedy. The loss of three beautiful children and the inexhaustible sorrow that the Clancy family must be feeling has been on the hearts and minds of the people of the South Shore. If you are like myself and so many others, you may be feeling a great sadness for everyone involved in this tragedy. You may also feel a desire to help in some way… any way. But how? What can we do to help when we feel so powerless to do so? None of us can restore the Clancy children back to life or heal the wounds and mental illness that afflicted their mom or fill the void that now lives in their father. None of us can take the memory of the first responders from them.

As I have thought about this and felt the grief of this community, my thoughts turn to God and all the questions that naturally come from such tragedies. “Why God? How God? Please heal this family. Please let mental illness everywhere be healed and these afflictions removed.”

The Bible teaches us that when we feel such great emotion, we are not powerless. The spiritual act of lament (a passionate expression of grief or sorrow – Oxford Dictionary) makes up nearly 2/3 of the book of psalms and gives us a template of how we, too, can come before God in the face of adversity, injustice, and great sorrow. And going before the God of the universe in NOT doing nothing.

Rich Villodas, Pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York recently said this about lament, “Lamenting is the spiritually mature response to sadness and sorrow. Our spiritual aliveness is not found in our ability to suppress sadness. Our spiritual aliveness is found in our ability to bring it to God.”

Instead of feeling that we are powerless to do anything in a sad, stressful, or tragic situation and pressing on, God invites us to come before his throne with those emotions, questions, prayers, and petitions. This is the spiritual practice of lament.

Pastor Glen Packiam, Pastor of New Life downtown in Colorado Springs, CO points out 5 things to understand about lament.

1. Lament is a form of praise. When we come to God with our sorrow, but also our hope that God is sovereign over all things, we praise him.
2. Lament is proof of relationship with God. We do not go with our authentic selves and our deepest emotions to a God we do not believe in, but one we already have some sort of relationship with.
3. Lament is a pathway to intimacy with God. When we lay our emotions at the feet of God it strengthens our bond of trust in him.
4. Lament is a prayer for God to act. At these times that we feel powerless to act, we pour our hope into God’s character and his ability to act on our behalf, for the good of his people.
5. Lament is participation in the pain of others. Sometimes, lament is about what we are going through, but often times it about something greater than ourselves. This is our way of participating in the community and sharing our grief together.

I invite you lament with me. Maybe it is something personal you need to lament, or maybe like me it is over the shared grief of lost lives and the brokenness of our world. Read Psalm 42 as a prayer. We are no longer powerless and doing nothing when we offer these cries of sorrow and hope up to God!

‘As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God! Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you— even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. “O God my rock,” I cry, “why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?” Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?” Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!’ (NLT)

Grace & Peace,

Kristie Peck

Next Generation Pastor

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