Lamenting.
We’ve all read about it. We know it has something to do with being sad.
But what does it really mean to lament? Is it possible that lamenting could actually be good for us? Pastor Kevin Butcher explains the importance making space to lament.
“I’ve come to believe God has given us a great gift and it’s called lament, it’s called grief. In fact, one third of the Psalms are songs of lament. What we are unconsciously taught in the body of Christ is, if you have some pain, you get over quickly, you bury, you move on, you love Jesus, you take the Lord at His promises or whatever the lingo is and you bury it.”
To illustrate, Kevin explains how industrial sites in the city of Detroit where he lives would take their toxic waste and bury it deep under the ground to “dispose” of it. Unfortunately, there was one wrinkle in their plan.
“Well, 25 years later, the problem is the tanks leak and all that toxic waste seeped into the ground water and poisoned everything in sight”
“We insidiously believe that we’re made to just blow off pain, but human beings are not made to blow off pain, human beings are made to lament, they’re not made to just put it off in some kind of a tank inside their spirits because it will leak. We grieve because we’re created in the image of a loving God. We grieve because we love.”
If we never lament, we can’t experience true joy because true joy only comes after we lament.
“We’re meant to take that pain, take it to our Abba and lean into His chest. He takes those tears and over a period of time He takes us through the forgiveness, He takes us through to letting go, and eventually we can literally look at our oppressors and our abusers and we can love them. But if we don’t move through that pain, it will sit in our spirit and it will poison us and produce bitterness and brokenness all the way home.”
Kevin Butcher is the lead pastor of Hope Community Church of Detroit, a messy fellowship of human beings from every kind of racial, economic, and educational background imaginable—with one thing in common: They own their emptiness and pursue healing through the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Choose + Choose Again
