Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Hurting, Humble, Voicing Longings

How do you speak to God when you're hurting? What do you pray when words won't come?

Did you know 1/3 of the psalms are psalms of lament? I didn't.

Ann Voskamp writes of learning to lament:
God is still present. When we honestly expose our inflammation, express our soreness, we are still staking our commitment to our relationship with Him. Choose to give voice to the sadness and you convey what you believe: a still-burning hope in relationship, a kindled expectation for reconciliation. For isn’t what animates angry words not the passion of love? Anger is love’s depths turned inside out. Far more insidious to relationship than anger is the indifference of silence, the unresponsiveness of apathy… the desensitization of soul leprosy.

...Learning to lament is to give voice to our longings. To accept the vulnerability of longing. To move from the sharp edge of pain to a humble petition of neediness. To hold out empty hands and cry please.

Lord, teach me to cry humbly, to cry out to You, trusting You to catch the tears.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you read "A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in The Lost Language of Lament"? Amazing! Put it on your Amazon wishlist if you haven't!