Reflections
on our need to lament, to accept the pain Covis 19 has caused in our lives
and to our institutions and to acknowledge it before we move forward.
I think we
all realise in one way or another that
nothing will ever be quite the same as it was, we also know that all things
change and that the situations we deal with have an impact upon us, sometimes
for good, sometimes not. But what of the things we inevitably will leave
behind, what of the losses, what of the breaking down of some of those
seemingly immovable structures in our
churches, in our face to face
interactions with each other, that perhaps we all thought would last in the same
way, if not forever, at least for us.
And yet in the
blink of an eye all that has gone and all it has taken to break down our
illusions of a secure and certain world and our place in it
was COVID 19.
We have to
accept that things have changed, that what was, will probably never fully return, and that we need to help and support each other to acknowledge
this, to mourn and give voice to what is
passing, before we go forward.
That is
where the idea of Lament comes to our aid. Lament, the prayer song we can sing between the pain of
loss and the promise of what is to come. The prayer song we can sing to help
ourselves and others come to terms with and process the sorrow, boredom,
frustration and pain we feel.
Here are
some thoughts from the book ‘Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy – Discovering the Grace of
Lament’ by Mark Vroegop. Crossway 2019.The books
purpose is to encourage the reader to
find deep mercy in dark clouds
and the title is taken from these two verses in Lamentations
“How the Lord in his anger has set
the daughter of Zion under a cloud” 2:1
“The steadfast love of the Lord never
ceases; his mercies never come to an end” 3:22
And Vroegop tells us that:
“Lament
is how we bring our sorrow to God. Without lament we won’t know how to process
pain. Silence bitterness and even anger can dominate our spiritual lives instead ……
So Lament is how we bring before God, our sorrow, our
pain, our trauma, and our emotions, how we express our feelings of
helplessness, hopelessness, tiredness
and disbelief. How in fact we deal the cloud that is COVID 19, and indeed with all the clouds that life throws
at us. We do this by understanding that to lament in the biblical sense is to
directly address our cries of pain and grief to God as the Psalmist does in Psalm 22
“Do not
be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help’ Psalm 22:11
To make Lament
is to release our pain and to tunnel our way to truth, because once we can
mourn what is lost, and recognise and name the hurt and pain by taking our
distress before the throne of God, and in trusting in God’s response, we can
once more embrace the challenge and change of the future and whatever may become our new normal.
“For we
know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28)
I have been
thinking about this very carefully and I love the idea of Lament being the song
we sing between the pain and the promise.
It is a song of belief that we can sing in times of trouble. Lament is
how we experience grace, no matter what we are called to face. So I want to make
a suggestion for you to think about: We may wonder what we as a small church
can do for our communities and friends, well perhaps, one of the most precious
things what we have to offer a hurting people and a hurting world, is the
healing song of Lament.
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