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Friday, July 29, 2005
Weep and Wail and Mourn
It was about 38 degrees today. I was melting but the cool evening is so welcome. My lament yesterday did me much good. Sometimes you just have to say or write it or both just to get it out of the system. Fortunately God has blessed me with a personality that is usually pretty positive and enthusiastic. But I still like and need to let it all out sometimes. Laments are one of those "overlooked" biblical concepts that is generally misunderstood and therefore way undervalued in our western culture. Nothing like the purifying power of a good lament! But our culture likes to make us all think we're supposed to be happy all the time. And that line of thinking seems to be epidemic in the Christian world. Everything has to be fixed and/or "victorious" or our faith comes under suspicion. What I find most interesting is that Kind David would write a lament, put it to harp music and then everyone at synagogue would sing it that Sabbath! How weird would that be. Imagine the song leader getting up there and saying something like, "Ok everyone David had a really bad week this week and somehow he found the time to put it into a poem and then to music and we're all going to sing and weep our way through it this morning." It was depressing, miserable, "durgy" type music and everyone felt the sadness of the song as they sang it. Then to top it all off, the Holy Spirit decides to make sure it is preserved in the bible for all eternity! Most of the Psalms are laments and of course Jeremiah left a whole book with the title Lamentations! Funny, I have grown up in the church and the only things I know about that book are the two or three positive statements in the whole book and virtually nothing else! Anyway, if your feeling down say so about sums up what a lament is all about! BOO-WHO!
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4 comments:
Yes, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. (or something to that effect) Nothing wrong with a lament. What do you think is the difference between lamenting and venting/ranting? How about lamenting and self-pity? I think maybe...lamenting has a different feel, but I can't think how to put that to words.
have a look at some of the laments in scripture. Moses, david, Jeremiah, Habbakuk, Solomon, even Jesus. Pretty much anything goes. I guess the only thing that I would say is common ground is that one's faith, though often shaken, is not abandoned. Lamentors would see the "joy in the morning" but come to understand that the joy could be waiting for them in heaven and may not be experienced here on earth.
Perhaps blowing off steam as you did yesterday is part of the purpose of a lament. You need to get things off your chest and release them, then you feel better.
It's a kind of purging I guess.
i suppose you could say it is much like a good cry. It is meant to clean out the whole system and bring back a sense of calmness.
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