Walking with God Through the Valley

1
Introduction

When I began my research as a biblical scholar, I had no idea that lament would be my area of interest. What could have been a gloomy topic ended up being one that sustained my soul through my own trying times. My interest in this topic began when I went through a personal trauma. I was a young wife with two small children, married to a pastor who was church planting. We struggled through ministry and other family obligations, but due to his unfaithfulness, I found myself feeling alone and abandoned. My life fell apart, and I was devastated.

It was through this experience that I learned about lament-a much-needed practice that sustained me through one of the most difficult times of my life. No one taught about lament in the church when I was growing up. Although I knew that life was not perfect and that we all go through trials, I was not equipped to face something so life changing and overwhelming. I did not know how to move on or process my feelings. I was broken and distressed to say the least. I could not eat or sleep for two weeks because I was so depressed. My life felt like a bad dream that I hoped would dissipate when I woke up the next morning, but when the morning came and my circumstances remained the same, I did not know what to do.

I felt abandoned, betrayed, lonely and lost, and the only solace I found was when I prayed and read the Bible. Sometimes my prayers were just tears and loud sobbing as I offered up my pain to God. Other times, I expressed my fears and anxiety about what the next steps were. I found myself reading the Psalms incessantly because they gave voice to my pain and uncertainties. I cried out to the Lord in my loneliness, and the truth in the Bible gave me hope. However, like the psalmist in Psalms 42-43, I found my emotions vacillating. There were days I felt hopeful that better days were ahead and that the Lord was with me, and other days I mourned the loss of a marriage and the sadness of a broken family.

Through that period, I felt like I hit rock bottom, but much to my surprise, my lament did not lead me into an endless abyss of hopelessness. Rather, lament led me straight into the arms of God-my true Rock and foundation. I realized that he was with me in my pain. He was close to me when I had no one else. He understood my feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Even when I vacillated in my emotions, his presence was close. There were times when my doubts got the best of me, but I had to remember the truth in his word.

My journey was not linear but rather a winding path that gave me hope amid a broken world. The laments found in Scripture became the catalyst for the healing that my soul longed for. These prayers gave me permission to voice my pain to God and to wait on him even when I did not see any immediate change in my circumstances.

LAMENT FOR TODAY

As I continued my studies on lament and as I experienced healing power myself, I quickly realized that lament was not just something for my personal life behind closed doors. Rather, lament can serve as a healing agent for entire communities of people. We are living in a time of uncertainty, with increased feelings of anxiety and depression stemming from isolation, racial injustice, wars, an increase in gun violence, and political unrest. The current social climate not only has caused anxiety, depression, suffering, and grief but has also left us angry, confused, perplexed, and even numb about how to handle everything that is constantly bombarding our eyes, ears, and hearts.

While lament is found throughout Scripture, it seems that only recently has the church recalled its importance. When I began teaching at Taylor University, a Christian liberal arts university in Upland, Indiana, I spoke about lament in several of my classes. Each time, several students confided that this was their first exposure to this concept or that they had not heard much teaching on lament in their own churches. While there has been an increased awareness of lament in the past few years, many still do not know how to practice lament or why it is important for our whole selves.

Furthermore, there is skepticism about lament in some spaces. I have even spoken to some Christians who view lament as antithetical to faith or confidence in God. Questions still abound: Is it not wrong to question, doubt, or wallow in grief? Does it not just exhibit weak faith? Is lament just being sad? Why do we need to keep rehearsing our pain? What exactly is lament? How does it help? How do we actually practice lament in our personal lives or as a community? These are just some of the questions and sentiments that have been raised.

DEFINING TERMS

Lament can be broadly understood as "expressing the reality of suffering," or more specifically expressing what one feels in the midst of pain.1 These expressions are demonstrated through various means or practices. To be sure, the practice of lament and the concept of lament are not necessarily equivalent, however, because individual practices give form to the concept of lament, I will be referring to them interchangeably.

Of course, one does not have to be a Christian to lament, but the concept and practice of biblical lament goes beyond the general understanding of merely expressing the reality of suffering. Too often lament is viewed as a practice or end in itself. Some have even become stuck in their pain as they continued to rehearse their suffering. Although this book does encompass the general nature of lament-that is, the expression of the reality of pain-its main focus is on biblical lament, which is rooted in the foundational understanding of the lament genre found in Scripture. As we study lament, it is important to distinguish between lament as a genre or type of literature in the Bible and the practice or concept of biblical lament. Understanding the genre of lament in the Bible will help us in our practice.

WHAT IS BIBLICAL LAMENT? UNDERSTANDING HOW GENRE INFORMS OUR PRACTICE

While the Bible describes people lamenting-for example, Job (Job 3), Jeremiah (Jer 11:18-20), Habakkuk (Hab 1), and Paul (2 Cor 12:8)-it also features a specific lament genre, or type of literature, which is found primarily in the Psalms. This genre is composed of prayers that are characterized by a specific form with common elements. In chapter three we will discuss these elements and the lament genre in detail as well as examine how the Hebrew terms for lament are used in the Bible. Understanding these common elements will help clarify how biblical lament is a much deeper process than just expressing our suffering. Chapter four will explore how lament as a genre in the Bible is similar to and different from the lament of other societies in the ancient Near East. These distinctions offer further guidance for the practice of biblical lament in our own lives.

At its most basic level, the practice of lament offers a way for us to process suffering, injustice, pain, and disappointments because we live in a broken and fallen world. Instead of avoiding these disappointments and hurts, lament helps us to engage these pains so we can move forward. Unfortunately, we live in a context that is great at avoiding conflict and discomfort. Instead of dealing with our pain, we numb it with busyness or entertainment. We would rather spend hours surfing the internet, scrolling through social media, distracting ourselves with retail therapy, binging on Netflix, playing video games, or participating in other addictive habits rather than facing the pain, anger, confusion, and loneliness we carry in our hearts. Some even turn to other, more self-destructive behaviors such as drugs, alcohol, and other addictions to quell these troublesome feelings or silence the pain. It is no wonder that the World Health Organization reports that more than 300 million people worldwide are estimated to live with depression, and adults are not the only ones dealing with stressors.2 When surveyed in 2017, 40 percent of teens reported feeling irritable or angry within the past month, and over a third reported feeling nervous, anxious, or overwhelmed.3 As these numbers continue to skyrocket after a worldwide pandemic, is there any hope for us moving forward? How are we to cope with these bleak statistics? Are we destined to live our lives bogged down by anxiety and depression?

Psychologists affirm that the healthiest way to move forward is to feel our feelings. Failure to do so could result in negative consequences for not just our mental health but also our physical health.4 A twelve-year follow-up study found that the suppression of emotions may lead to earlier death, including death from cancer.5 This correlation between our emotions and physical health reinforces that we are whole persons who engage life emotionally, physically, and spiritually. How we process our pain, doubts, questions, and anger will inevitably affect our emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.

The practice of lament found in the Bible is ultimately an act of faith. When we face struggles, our instinct is usually to turn away from God or shut down, but lament encourages us to press in and engage God even in our brokenness and despair. This instinct to retreat from God is evident early in the Bible. After the fall, Adam and Eve hide from God instead of turning to him-perhaps because of doubt, pride, sin, shame, or the pain of disappointing God, or perhaps all of these. As we continue to live in this broken world, these same factors have also...