How Do You Give Voice To Your Grief?

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How Do You Give Voice To Your Grief?
Lamentations 1:1-6

1 How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. 2 She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies. 3 Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. 4 The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter. 5 Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away,  captives before the foe. 6 From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.

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Sometimes, we just need to give voice to our grief. The worst thing we can do is to ignore it—push it aside because it is too painful. In today’s Old Testament reading, the author is facing the reality that Jerusalem, a city that was once full of glory, prosperity, and prominence, has fallen. It is a raw time for the author, a time to face the unforgiving reality of sorrow and suffering head-on. Through it all, though, God is there. The pain is a crucible from which the Jewish people will emerge; God will see them through it. That’s the interesting thing about Lamentations—it’s one long prayer, a prayer of expression, a lifting up of one’s pain to God. God can take the pain, God wants us to lift our pain to God because God wants all our humanity, not just the clean and neat parts.

  • How do you give voice to your grief?
  • How do you bring your grief to prayer?
This Bible study, written by the Rev. Daniel Johnson, OPA