Lament Well 

Perhaps we haven’t been able to visit our loved ones who live away. 
Perhaps we had a special trip cancelled. 
We miss things that give us comfort. 
Things aren’t like they used to be. 

This is a time of trauma. Even though we are moving on, it is not the same. Some days life feels raw. Events haunt us. Tragedies overwhelm. We feel disoriented; we lose our bearings, old certainties waver.We feel drained of patience. God seems to vanish.  We feel thin in ourselves. We get “undone” by the simplest of things. 

This is the time for the prayer of lament. 

Some say 40% of the Psalms are laments; either personal cries of disappointment, anger or despair or expressing the lament of a community in distress.  

• So pick up a bible and read Psalms until you find yourself in one. (Psalm 4, 9-10, 13, 22, 88, 90 137, 141 are examples of Lament.)
   
• Or write your own lament prayer. Tell God what’s wrong. Bring your emotions to God. God loves our honest selves! 
   
• Or when you are washing your face or cleaning the dishes, take a moment to name your lament, your loss, your disappointment, your frustration, your fear — then wring out your face cloth or dish cloth and know God hears your lament.

Lament well, friends. It’s an important spiritual practice.