“The harvest is finished,Slice of Infinity Snippets:
and the summer is gone,” the people cry,
“yet we are not saved!”I hurt with the hurt of my people.
I mourn and am overcome with grief.
Is there no medicine in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why is there no healing
for the wounds of my people? (Jeremiah 8:20-22 NLT)
But beyond this, there are simply some realities in life that at times are overwhelming: the inevitability of ageing, death, and loss, poverty, hunger, homelessness, relational disruption, and many others. I grieve over those who find themselves on the losing end of things, who through no fault of their own always find themselves in last place or left behind. Lament arises from the despair of looking honestly at these realities for what they are, and wishing for something else. It is the despair that arises from not knowing what can be done or how to overcome.
Yet it has been said that “the cry of pain is our deepest acknowledgment that we are not home.” The author continues, “We are divided from our own body; our own deepest desires; our dearest relationships. We are separated and long for utter restoration. It is the cry of pain that initiates the search to ask God, ‘What are you doing?’ It is this element of a lament that has the potential to change the heart.”(3) If this is true, then sometimes my overwhelming sorrow, my feelings of bitterness over some of the harsh or inevitable realities of life are, in fact, the crucible for real change. The same waters of despair that seek to drown and overwhelm are the waters of cleansing. So indeed, let the tears flow, “for if [the LORD] causes grief, then He will have compassion according to his abundant lovingkindness.”(4) Let lament have its way of bittersweet transformation.
Comments: However often God must win, it is our most difficult but most triumphant loss. (Excerpt from Monday's blog)
Live By The Spirit! Present tense - "Go on Living!" (Danny / Elaine) Galatians 5:16
No comments:
Post a Comment