Lament is a powerful process of emotions, a process in which Westerners do their best to cover up from those whom they either want to impress or want to compete against. The lack of trust and lack of vulnerability towards others takes its toll on the believing community because, frankly, we weren’t made to be this way at all! As Yahweh once declared, “It is not good for man (humanity) to be alone.” In other words, we were never created to be an “island onto ourselves” with the notion that lamenting is a solitary endeavor. In fact, lamenting (that which is found in scripture) is a relational response of emotion, publicly acknowledged by all. Any purveyor of scripture will find kings, judges, prophets, and assemblies of people crying towards the heavens for relief and solace from the God of all—most of which was done in the presence of the community of the faithful. But for most of us raised in the continental U.S., the notion of weeping in public is a sign of weakness. We are told to “man up!” and bottle all that we have inside us until we eventually have a heart attack, develop an eating disorder, become an alcoholic, or, even more sobering, we exit off the stage of life by our own volition. Instead, lament should be viewed as a witness of one’s humanity in the midst of life’s turbulent waters and embraced as a gift from a Creator who designed us to be relational beings through watershed experiences. Lamenting is our God-given salve to redirect our hearts and minds and find the courage to be in community.
“Cry aloud to the Lord! O wall of daughter Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!” (Lamentations 2: 18)
