Laughter and Lament: The Radical Freedom of Joy and Sorrowናሙና

Life is Hard and Then You Repent

What is repentance? The word comes from a Greek word, meaning “a change of mind.” It is not an action, but an attitude. It is the recognition of who God is (holy, righteous, sovereign, and good) and who you are (not holy, righteous, sovereign, and good) and going to God with it. The natural demeanor of repentance is lament. Sometimes that lament is with tears, great sorrow, or great shame, and sometimes it is just an agreement with God without excuse or spin. The “sisters” of repentance and lament can be seen in the words of the prodigal son when he returns home to his father and not in the words of the “righteous” brother who never left (Luke 15). Repentance and lament are clearly expressed by the man who prayed in the temple who knew he was so bad that he could ask for nothing but mercy, and not in the righteous man who didn’t think that he needed mercy (Luke 18).

At the heart of lament is helplessness. We think we can just turn around, do better, and become the good person we want to be. Actually, we can’t. It’s just hard to admit it. The Bible teaches that all sin is obsessive and therefore lamentable. Once we begin to get that, we have taken the first step on the road to freedom—not the spurious freedom that comes from changing from being a bad person to being a good person, but the freedom that God gives to people who know how impossible getting there is.

If the lament of repentance is the pathway to laughter and freedom, how do we get there? The only thing that will set you free is worship. And not just any kind of worship of any kind of god, but genuine worship of the holy, sovereign, righteous, and big God revealed in the Scriptures.

Let me give you a principle: Genuine worship leads to awareness, awareness leads to the lament of repentance, lament and repentance lead to a reordering of one’s perception of oneself, others, and the world . . . and that leads to laughter and freedom.

The source of true joy and freedom is repentance before a God who should discipline you, but instead hugs you. It’s walking into a dark room and then someone turns on the lights of a Christmas tree. It’s expecting to be condemned, but finding that you’re loved. It’s lamenting who you are, and then realizing who you really are, the child of your Father, the King.