Heartbreaking- Lament Over Israel War
/The war in Isreal is heartbreaking.🇮🇱🙏
With all that’s going on in the world, the pain, the suffering, the wars, divisions…There is a verse in the Bible that has stood out to me these past few years as a reminder of the gift of lament.
“. . . Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament.”
— Jeremiah 9:20
If I hadn’t learned the biblical gift of lament yet, my soul would be tormented by the devastation. The images. The what ifs. The cognitive dissonance with what should be to what is.
“Laments help us through suffering by directing our hearts to make the choice—often daily— to trust in God's purposes hidden behind the pain. In this way, a lament is one of the most theologically informed practices of the Christian life. Laments lead us through our sorrows so that we can trust God and praise him.”- Mark Vroegop, Author of “Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament.”
10 years ago, I picked up these hearts made of Olive Wood in a gift shop in Isreal to give to family members as a small memento of my first trip to the Holy Land. Been three times in the last decade. As a result, my heart has grown to love the people, the miracle of Israel and the promises of God made available to all the nations of the world. This is the land Jesus was born, walked the earth, fulfilled hundreds of prophesies there. This is the land He will come back to at the end of time to complete what He started. Remembering Jesus was Jewish. Plus, Isreal is known as the Apple of Gods eye.
As such, terrorist actions and antisemitism must not be tolerated.
I know the complexity of this war cannot be explained in one post- Hamas doesn’t represent the heart of the diverse Palestinian people group where many desire true justice and peace.
I bought these wooden hearts in the West Bank in Bethlehem. 🇵🇸🙏
I cry out for true peace, the Prince of Peace. The Light of the world to heal the broken-hearted, to take our wails, our tears, our anger- and show us the way Home. Our eternal home that begins first in our hearts.
“ O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.”
Let it be so🕯️🙏🕊️
My initial prayer: Break our hearts for what breaks Yours Lord! Teach us to wail. Take our tears of grief and lament and use them for healing. Wise as serpents, harmless as doves.
I think I will write a lament over this heartbreaking war in Israel. I am pulling out my notes from when I blogged about the topic of lament during the pandemic in a post in 2020 “Learning to Lament” . If it’s meant to be private, it’ll keep it there. If it’s meant to be shared, I will share soon. Until then, may your hope for true hope, peace and justice be met in the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ now and always.
Recommended Resources:
Crossway Blog: The Four Basics of Lament
Micheal Card’s Book: “A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching out to God in the Lost Language of Lament”
My “Learning to Lament” Blog April 2020
Bible Project Video on the book of Lamentations
To help with an outline and Biblical premise, Micheal Card in his book “A Sacred Sorrow”, shares a format for Lament:
Address your prayer to God with an invocation as your initial cry.
Express a complaint to God, describing the source of the suffering. (This is the body of your lament; allow time for your outcry to find voice. Describe how your grief feels, tastes, smells, looks, and sounds. Employ as many details as you can to portray your experience.)
Silence: Sit with your suffering and your grief. Then stay in the silence and stillness to allow space for a movement from pain to emerging hope.
Write a petition or plea (including motivation) for God's help.
- Petition - Speak requests, couched in bold, direct language- Motivation - gives reasons for God to act -- God's character, justice, promises, etc.
Silence: Space for a movement from pain to emerging hope.
Express your assurance that God hears you.
Write a vow of praise & commitment— what you offer in response to God's grace.
- Praise: Assurance of being heard (trusting the relationship we have with God)- Vow of Commitment: We promise to keep our part of the covenant
A Doxology: A reassertion of our relationship with a God who hears and responds.
To download an example of a lament and suggestions/ guidelines for writing your own lament, click on the button below.
“Lament is the path that takes us to the place where we discover that there is no complete answer to pain and suffering, only Presence. The language of lament gives a meaningful form to our grief by providing a vocabulary for our suffering and then offering it to God as worship. Our questions and complaints will never find individual answers (even as Job’s questions were never fully answered). The only Answer is the dangerous, disturbing, comforting Presence, which is the true answer to all our questions and hopes.”
