The Art of Lament: (pt.1)
Pain, Practice & Peace
By: Reginald Johnson
Unexpected Pain
It was a spring afternoon, 2:12 p.m., as I left my Philosophy Class. Writing a paper on God and suffering caused me to beeline to the library right after class. Yet, several missed calls from my wife stopped me in my tracks. Unable to reach her, I rushed home, assuming the worst, where my neighbor awaited me and approached me tenderly.
He gently shared that my sister was hit and killed by a drunk driver. Immediately, tears poured from my face and continued until my soul seemed dry. At that moment, God and suffering were no longer an abstract assignment but a point of real pain that confronted me down to my core.
Author Jon Connolly writes that our world is filled with broken things: broken hearts, people, and promises. When challenged by brokenness, how do we recapture the beauty in our world and move from gladness in one moment to grief in the next? As we think about God and suffering together, I want us to explore the ancient practice that is too often neglected and largely unexplored.
An Unexplored Practice
When we receive that serendipitous call, or we're alerted that a loved one has been diagnosed with a severe sickness, we cope. Yet sometimes, we miss the fact that even a non-practice is a practice, nonetheless. The question we must ask is, is our practice workable and durable? The Bible gives us such an option, and I want to explore it through the invitation of the ancient practice called lament. Let's wrap our heads around this ancient practice. Are you in?
In his book Prophetic Lament, author Soong-Chan Rah points out that lament is often missing from the narrative of the American church. Lament is that desperate prayer or song, sung in the face of despair. It is not just something believers should be able to articulate but practice. Mark Vroegop defines lament as, “the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling between the paradox of pain & God's promise.” Later, Vroegop, in his book Dark Clouds Deep Mercy, lists four helpful movements toward lament, and they are as follows:
1. Turn to God – in your pain.
2. Complain to God – through your pain.
3. Ask God – to act according to His character and promises.
4. Trust God – to act based on His character and promises.
