3 | 11 | 15 Lamentations, Chapter 3
Cactus Bloom, © 2015
And then there was real, genuine, authentic hope.
The past two days of reading Lamentations has been an exercise in understanding, accepting, and acknowledging the place grief, pain, and suffering has in our lives. I knew going into this book of the Bible the theme was suffering, yet the readings still challenged me. Is it not like that with suffering, grief, and pain? We know it is a part of life, we believe we accept it, yet we never truly feel up to the challenge.
Grief and suffering is uncomfortable. It is sad, at times discouraging. It can pull us into depression and hopelessness, and make us feel isolated and abandoned. We think others should be with us, we shouldn't suffer alone, and sometimes, we question God. Why? Why me, Lord? Don't you love me?
I've been there. I've cried. I've bargained. I've pleaded. I've angered and resented. I've even given up and felt defeated and pitiful. None of those feelings made any of my suffering better. None of my feelings of resentment or anger, for instance, brought my Granma back, or my father. When I got through frowning, they were still gone. And as a constellation prize, my anger and resentment brought me feelings of guilt. Who am I to question God? Who am I to ask why? How dare I assume that I am above grief, loss, and suffering?
Without proper perspective, and placing proper boundaries around our grief, we fall into this cyclic dance with grief, despair, anger, resentment, guilt, and sometimes, depression. Lamentations helps us better understand the purpose of suffering, and teaches us how to find faith and hope in the midst of our grief.
This morning, reading chapter three, I got it.
If chapters one and two weren't so deeply sorrowful, so wrenching with grief, the arrival at faith in chapter three wouldn't be so sweet. Suffering is the same. Grief, pain, sorrow--it all is the same. We learn how to praise, how to practice gratitude, how to surrender and submit to God, how to pour our faith into God through our moments of suffering.
When I was about seven or eight-years-old, I ran inside to my grandparents house from playing outside, crying. I had just skinned my knee, it was bleeding, stinging, and I was looking at the ashy, brown layers of skin hanging off my knee, acting a mess. I cried hard into my Papa's shoulder, who went into the hall cabinet and got the dreaded brown bottle of peroxide and cotton balls. I cried some more. He took me into the bathroom, sat me down, and told me he was going to clean me up and put a band-aid on me, then I'd be fine. I told him, no, I don't want the pain, just let it be. Of course he insisted, gently, but he said something that I didn't understand then, but never forgot.
Baby, thank God for the pain. Why, it means you're still alive. Thank God that you can feel the pain, it'll be gone soon enough, but you'll still be here. We thank God for everything, even our pain. -Papa
I think I looked at him like he was crazy. No, I know I did. After he cleaned me up and I dramatically limped to the dinning room table, he had me read a few verses. And then he told me, I know you think your old Papa is crazy, but watch how God'll stop your knee from hurting. Sure enough, by then the stinging was over. I stayed inside, reading with him, but kept a funny eye on him, too.
God really wants me to thank Him when I hurt my knee? Papa must be crazy, I thought.
Thankfully, I loved and respected Papa, so I heeded his advice even if I didn't understand. It isn't until I lived a while before I grew to understand what Papa was teaching me. And it wasn't until I started reading Lamentations, this week, that I started the process of learning how to practice grace during suffering.
Chapter three has really guided my understanding, and I'm so excited to share what I'm learning. Hang in here with me, it's long, but I promise it is also worth it.
Hopeful in God's Mercy
Chapter three begins with more of Jeremiah's Lamentations, and they are important to note, though we've already read a number of them in chapters one and two, because they teach us a few things.
"He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. Even when I cry out and plead for help, He rejects my prayer. He has walled in my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked." Lm 3:7-9 (HCSB)
When we sin, disobey, continue to live outside of God our paths, lives become crooked. Life without God is full of dead ends; life without God is a maze that leads us nowhere.
I cannot express how many times I've felt like I was living in confusion, like my life was crooked and full of dead ends. All of those times, I was living without God. I was relying on my own will and not His.
"My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. Then I thought: My future is lost, as well as my hope from the Lord." Lm 3:17-18 (HCSB)
When we are living away from God we feel lost. I think we tend to think that our feelings of despair are uncommon, but they aren't. In fact, I think part of the learning process for us is to feel cut off from God. The greater our depths of suffering and sorrow in that state, the better we learn and faster we realize we need God.
Sadness, depression, loneliness, anger, hopelessness and feelings of abandonment are all common feelings when God is absent from our lives. We don't have or feel peace when He is not present in our life. As such, we begin to feel hopeless, and like we have no true future.
I know, without God in my life, I feel hopeless, lost and without a clear future or purpose.
Jeremiah's Hope:
Midway through, Jeremiah begins to talk to us about hope. After all his despair, he shows us where he has found hope and faith--in God. This section is truly beautiful in how it helps us to understand gratitude in suffering.
"Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and the poison. I continually remember them and have become depressed. Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say: The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him." -Jm 3:19-24 (HCSB)
These verses beautifuly hold, at the same time, Jeremiah's sorrow and faith. They allow us to see how he moved from the depths of grief towards deep faith and hope. They teach us so much.
- We must remember our afflictions so we can learn from them.
- Remembering will and can make us sad and depressed, but that is okay, as long as we understand the cause of our suffering, and we understand that our grief has boundaries, it will soon come to an end.
- As long as we are alive, we are living God's compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.
- God and His love and mercy is always faithful, even when we are not.
- Every morning is a gift, a blessing of His mercy, love and faithfulness.
- Put your hope/faith in the Lord.
Now the really good stuff, the verses that fired me up this morning:
"The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks HIm. It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young." -Jm 3:25-27 (HCSB)
Three Ways God is Good:
- God's being, nature, love, and mercy is always good.
- God is good to us when we wait silently and learn to withstand the lessons He teaches us in our suffering.
- God is good to those who learn to surrender to His divine judgement and will.
"Let him sit alone and be silent, for God has disciplined him. Let him put his mouth in the dust--perhaps there is still hope. Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with shame." -Jm 3:28-30 (HCSB)
How to Suffer Silently:
- Sit alone, in silence. In our solitude, we are able to reflect with God.
- "Put your mouth to dust." Speak no anger, evil, and do not complain.
- Offer your cheek to those who offend you. Cultivate an attitude of humility.
"For the Lord will not reject us forever. Even if He causes suffering, He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love. For He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind."
Three Reasons to Hope:
- God will not reject us forever.
- God's compassion is abundant and outweighs His sorrow and judgement.
- God does not enjoy bringing suffering to His children
Today's study was so nurturing for me. As I said earlier in the post, I am still learning how to be graceful while suffering. It's hard to be thankful for pain, grief, and sorrow. But, I'm thinking, if I change my perspective and focus instead on the lessons adversity teaches me, how it cultivates greater strength in Him, and also how to savor the great and good times, my learning curve may be less steep.
I hope my insights inspire you, that you'll share them wide and far, that you'll go on and inspire others and me. We are never alone, and our lessons may be ripe lessons for others. Each one, teach one.
Deep and Full Blessings to You,
Kiandra