Creating a Song of Lament in Our Hearts

This is an excerpt from As for Me by Adrienne Camp.

There are times when I imagine myself being like Mary of Bethany, choosing to sit at the Lord’s feet instead of doing anything else.

Life is hard and unfair. There’s no way around it. But regardless, Jesus wants you to come and sit at His feet. Lean in close, listen, and learn if that’s what your heart needs, or simply come and bawl your head off and wash His feet with your tears (see Luke 7:38). Jesus never pushed away the broken, lost, diseased, dirty, or shameful. He welcomed them, and He welcomes you and me, no matter what condition we’re in.

Did you know there’s a whole variety of flowers that only bloom at night? Most of them are highly fragrant and intensely colorful. Some close the instant that sunlight touches their petals. This tells me something about God’s heart, even in creation. There are treasures to be found in the darkness—something fragrant, something healing, something colorful. Some flowers that bloom at night are used for medicinal purposes. God longs for us to comfort others with what has comforted us.

With the phrases “shouts of joy” and “sing and make music,” the psalmist described a fresh encounter with the Lord and a new work He was doing. God puts a new song in my mouth; He changes what was old and gross into something beautiful

Turn on some of your favorite worship music. (A beautiful old song is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”) Sit at the feet of Jesus, lament before Him, and do whatever you need to do in order to create a song of lament in your heart—for yourself or for someone else.

In Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, Mark Vroegop refers to the pattern of lament as “turn, complain, ask, and trust.”1

Let’s practice that now.....

1. Find a quiet spot.

2. Set your timer for ten minutes.

3. Pour out your heart to the Lord.

4. Turn. Complain. Ask. Trust.

1. Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019).