When You Struggle to Feel God's Loveናሙና

How Did We Get Here? (The Language Of Lament)

Scripture:

“Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my stomach churns;

my heart is wrung within me,

because I have been very rebellious.”

Lamentations 1:20 (ESV)

Today, I want you to imagine with me: you’re from the tribe of Judah. As a kid, you knew God promised your tribe “a scepter” that would never “depart”—an heir to David who’d reign forever (Gen. 49:10; 2 Sam. 7). You’re Abraham’s descendant—promised the land you live in (Gen. 15; 2 Chron. 6:6). You’re Yahweh’s “treasured possession among all peoples” (Ex. 19:5). This is your people’s story, their identity; it’s your story, your identity.

And yet, it’s 581 BC—about five years after the great fall of your hometown, Jerusalem, at the hands of the cruel, mighty nation Babylon. At age twelve, your coming of age came with the cries of mothers bereaved, fathers deported, and blood pouring into the decimated streets by men speaking some language you couldn’t understand.

Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah warned of this exile, this destruction of the temple—but they’d been mostly ignored, scorned, persecuted. Sure, the Assyrian exile had happened to the seceded northern nation of Israel (chronic idolaters), but here in Judah? The place of promise?

Now, only “the poorest in the land” (Jer. 40:7) are left. And that’s you. This is your story, but your identity?

When you walk by the Babylonian soldiers occupying your lonely city, your parents’ eyes tell the story their mouths can’t articulate: deportation is vile. You’ve seen girls violated, boys enslaved, starved mothers eating their own babies. Law enforcement calls you names, dehumanizing and demoralizing.

You want to hide. You want to fight. You want to scream. How?! God, why?!

As my culture collapses, my family’s future all but dead—where is Yahweh in all of this?

Were all those promises just fairy tales, mere myths?

Is Yahweh just like the gods of our neighbors—temperamental, vindictive?

Did the Babylonian gods defeat Him?

If He’s really the One writing history, and our history with Him, then how could God be good when all I see is chaos and destruction?

Your questions are valid. Read that again. Now take that rage, that sadness, that pain, and send it all to heaven’s address. Make it a song of worship, a prayer to God. This is called lament.

This is not only okay to do; lamenting is crucial to your learning—deep in your bones—the love of God, which will meet you, hold you, and surprise you on the mourning path. Yes, even when your pain is a direct consequence of you or your community’s sin. I suggest you read all of Lamentations.

Call to Action:

Here’s a writing prompt for you today: Stories, in so many ways, shape our core beliefs and composite identity. We each have a multitude of stories that make up our sense of who we are—ancestral stories, family of origin stories, cultural stories, trauma stories, and even the stories embedded in our nervous systems. What painful part of your story (past or present) makes your heart cry, God, why?! Why is it important to take that question to God?