August 28 - Lamentations 1-3:36: Something Good Happens in Suffering

"To be human is to suffer. No one gets an exemption...Neither explaining suffering nor offering a program for the elimination of suffering, Lamentations keeps company with the extensive biblical witness that gives dignity to suffering by insisting that God enters our suffering and is companion to our suffering." Eugene Peterson, Intro to Lamentations

Last night, I was telling Harry about the nightmares I've been having, in large part due to reading the details of the destruction of Jerusalem. My dreams have totally freaked me out, and I've laid awake for hours during the night, praying and asking God to erase the images from my mind.

As Harry and I discussed it, we somehow got on the topic of what we would do and how we would endure if something horrible happened to one of us or our children. (Nice conversation, huh?)

Whenever I go down that morbid path, I'm reminded of what Harry told me about when his father died unexpectedly in 2003. Harry had talked to his dad on a Friday and got the call about his death early on a Monday morning. His stepmother and brother leaned on him throughout the ordeal, and Harry didn't know where his father stood spiritually. It was a heart-wrenching, confusing time for him in many ways.

Even so, Harry was surprised at how much he felt God's presence in the midst of it. And he experienced joy as well, not about the circumstances, but unexplainable joy in the Lord. It was so unexpected that he didn't feel like he could tell people about it at the time because they'd think he was sick or crazy.

But in reality, God's all-sufficient grace carried my husband through those days of immeasurable grief. And in it, he experienced God's love and faithfulness in a deep and meaningful way, making God all the more trustworthy in Harry's eyes.

Jeremiah's words in Lamentations reminded me of Harry's experience. Jeremiah witnessed horrifying destruction and unimaginable depravity:

His anger blazing, [God] knocked Israel flat, broke Israel's arm and turned his back just as the enemy approached, came on Jacob like wildfire from every direction. (2:3)

My eyes are blind with tears, my stomach in a knot. My insides have turned to jelly over my people's fate. Babies and children are fainting all over the place (2:11)

What can I say to give you comfort, dear Zion? Who can put you together again? This bust-up is past understanding. (2:13)

Look at us, God. Think it over. Have you ever treated anyone like this? Should women eat their own babies, the very children they raised? Should priests and prophets be murdered in the Master's own Sanctuary? (2:20)

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all - oh, how well I remember - the feeling of hitting bottom. (3:19-20)

Yet in spite of it all, Jeremiah continued to return to his Faithful God. Jeremiah saw the worst of the worst and still experienced God's faithfulness and worshipped God as his Master and Savior.

But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. (3:21-24)

When life is heavy and hard to take...don't ask questions: wait for hope to appear. Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst. Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. (3:28-32)

"Suffering is an event in which we're particularly vulnerable to grace, able to recognize dimensions in God and depths in the self...Lamentations is not grief management." Eugene Peterson, Conversations, pg. 1259

"Learn the message of Lamentations: something good happens in suffering that cannot happen in pleasure." 66 LL