Well, Blogging is one thing... now I have to pretend to be a poet too. Please excuse my fumbling as I am a new blogger and new poet.. there are lots of new things for me lately!
I was really struck this week by a discussion from our Google hangout. We, as a Christian culture, tend to shy way from the "lamenting" prayers. We are always quick to "sing songs of praise" and even when there are times of struggle... I feel most often the tone taken is one of trust and faith in God. Which is good, but people need to hear it is okay to not be okay.
One of the elements of my job that I enjoy the most is care and counseling. The idea of "bottling up our laments" hit close to home for me! We are not told often enough that it is okay to be angry with God, it is okay to not always have a song of praise in our hearts. I believe God desires authentic relationship with each of us, that is why we were given free will. Is it truly an authentic relationship if we only share the "warm fuzzy" feelings? As Dr. Lester said in Google hangouts this week "Let's get real!".
When we look at the Psalms we see laments, praises, hymns and thanksgivings. These writings are "keeping it real". In one of our assigned readings this week Bandstra does a great job of capturing the "realness" of the psalms: "the psalms gave voice to the people’s deepest feelings and emotions, and reading them exposes the pulsing heart of Israel".
To your right you will see my attempt at exposing my own pulsing heart: (sorry the imagery there is less than desirable..I immediately see flashbacks to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom..ekk!) Regardless of those images, here is my attempt at "keeping in real".
This is really good! I can really relate to the lament prayer. There has been many times where I have asked the question "Where is your faithfulness God", "Where is your justice".
ReplyDeleteOne of the things about this weeks assignment is that I have discovered freedom in just "keeping it real". I'm not sure if I could do it all the time because then I would head down towards some emo route that the end result would be black fishnets on my arms.
Thanks for posting this lament prayer.
I agree, this is really good! Thank you for your thoughtful reflection and lament prayer. Your words were quite powerful and resonated deeply with me. I actually used it as a prayer myself.
ReplyDeleteHow true it is that, at least for me, I've been taught that we should always have a joyful song in our hearts. Period. No matter what is going on or how terrible life is, we should thank God for what's going on in our lives. This week's material has taught me a new appreciation for the psalms as well as an entirely new approach to prayers.
Your psalm is incredible. I hope you will learn to give yourself a little more credit for the things you do. You are a very good writer (and a very good artist!)!
ReplyDeleteThe verses that really got me were the questions:
how long must i be silent?
how long must i be still?
how long will you be silent?
how long will you be still?
That is exactly the human experience, huh?
This weeks readings, lectures, and writings have really given way to some freedom for authenticity. I think as church workers we feel we must be somethings, sometimes these somethings are not us. I am not always going to be happy. I am not always going to trust that God will hear my prayers and deliver me from the things that break my heart. That is what living is, though. These psalms are making space for that kind of living. That kind of authenticity. I applaud you for making space for that in your life and in our lives.
I appreciated how you broke your lamentation up. I particularly liked when you used your action as a contrast to God's action (Have I not been just? Where is your faithfulness? Where is your justice?).
ReplyDeleteThis ties into a theme found in Psalm 44 (the make I worked on this week) in which the Psalmist says "All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you, or been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way, yet you have broken us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with deep darkness." (Psalm 44:17-19).
I think this is often the case in laments found in the Psalms. The people feel abandoned by God and are not sure why. Well done.
I agree with Brittany - that particular section of the poem was excellent. I really like how you utilized a variety of the couplet styles common to Hebrew poetry.Your use of parallelism was excellent. You've got kind of an extended climactic parallelism going on in the last stanza, which I think is powerful. I think following the specific promises of praise with a more global commitment to praising God was a simple and elegant way to end.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I really enjoy how this Psalm wrestles with the struggle for justice from multiple perspectives. It's not just "why" - but it's a question of "where?" and "when" and "will you please?" -- it's also an intimate confession to God regarding the impact of this suffering. That lends authenticity and relatability, and makes it powerfully human and real. Excellent!
I really appreciated your Psalm! There was so much emotion in it that I could feel just like the Psalms! I appreciated how you kept it real as you wrote it and then talked about keeping it real as part of your blog post. Your Psalm is an inspiration to me. It made me wonder what my outcries would sound like.
ReplyDelete