Lament

When we lose someone, all we can see is death around us. We and others look for the good that comes out of it without ever truly passing through a period of mourning, sorrow and lament. Why is it that people find it so difficult to just let us be?

This time it is a friend of mine who has lost and I think it's so difficult to truly lament. It's easier to move on and never really experience the depth of that hurt.

I think it comes from our understanding of God. We know that he is good but the problem arises because we apply a western narcissistic perspective on him. "Because God is good and infinitely powerful, he theoretically can prevent suffering and loss and therefore he should". If he doesn't, our schemas fall apart because we can't explain it and because we can't explain it, we are confused because we have been taught that all things have a rational conclusion.

Biblical figures understood God as powerful and separate but close and intimate.

That's why you get books like Lamentations, which we can no longer read in its entirety.

We struggle so deeply with the idea that God would allow hurt or even hurt us through punishment. We struggle so deeply that we refuse to seek his comfort in these times because it is all "his fault".

I feel like I've hit a wall with this because I struggle with this. I find myself skipping over some psalms.

But I guess I want to say, where I am going at least, is that if we don't grasp this bigger view of who God is, we lose part of our humanity. We lose a true and deep lament that we need. We lose that emotion in us that makes us human. And we lose a real trust in God because we just ignore him or belittle him in the darkest moments of our lives.

Because we need him in the brightness of his presence and in the darkness of his seeming absence