This week I welcome guest blogger, Clint Watkins, as he shares with us how his personal experience of loss and pain led him to learn how to seize hope through lament. If you want to learn more about Clint, please visit his website. As we continue studying Psalm 77, we have already learned how lamentContinue reading “Wonder: Remember His Rescue – Psalm 77, Part 3”
Tag Archives: lament
Wrestle: Voice Your Doubt – Psalm 77, Part 2
This week I welcome guest blogger, Clint Watkins, as he shares with us how his personal experience of loss and pain led him to learn how to seize hope through lament. If you want to learn more about Clint, please visit his website. In the previous post, we learned how lament starts with weeping, inContinue reading “Wrestle: Voice Your Doubt – Psalm 77, Part 2”
Weep: Describe Your Despair – Psalm 77, Part 1
This week I welcome guest blogger, Clint Watkins, as he shares with us how his personal experience of loss and pain led him to learn how to seize hope through lament. If you want to learn more about Clint, please visit his website. Three and a half years ago my wife and I lost ourContinue reading “Weep: Describe Your Despair – Psalm 77, Part 1”
How do we deal with loss and pain – Psalm 77, Preview
Last week I traveled with my brother and sister to a family funeral in Fredericksburg, Virginia. There we joined my parents and some aunts, uncles and cousins to support my aunt and her family, as her husband, my uncle, had rather suddenly passed away the week before. He was only 69. While he had beenContinue reading “How do we deal with loss and pain – Psalm 77, Preview”
When God laments, it can change everything – Ezekiel 19, Part 5
In Ezekiel 19 (starting here) we have seen God lamenting, expressing his pain, in the form of an allegorical funeral dirge, that simply says, “My children whom I love, you have betrayed me and become something totally different and oppressive, something I didn’t want for you. I have tried hard to express my love forContinue reading “When God laments, it can change everything – Ezekiel 19, Part 5”
Why and how we need to sit in our pain? – Ezekiel 19, Part 4
This week we’re studying Ezekiel 19 and its two allegorical parables of lament. The first was a lament about lions. The second parable of lament is similar. Read about it in verses 10-14. Very similar to the lions, isn’t it? A vine grows fruitful and abundant and strong. But it gets uprooted, withered by anContinue reading “Why and how we need to sit in our pain? – Ezekiel 19, Part 4”
A lament about lions? – Ezekiel 19, Part 3
Now that we have taken time to understand lament here and here, we return to Ezekiel chapter 19, verse 1, where we learn that God is asking Ezekiel to deliver a lament. Notice that this lament is the opposite of the psalms of lament. In the psalms of the lament, David and the other psalmistContinue reading “A lament about lions? – Ezekiel 19, Part 3”
When you cry out to God, and he doesn’t seem to answer – Ezekiel 19, Part 2
Jesus lamented. He was hurting deeply, and he expressed that hurt to God. We don’t normally think about Jesus like that, complaining to God. Yet arguably the most famous example of spoken lament comes from Psalm 22, where the psalmist, David, writes, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It’s famous because JesusContinue reading “When you cry out to God, and he doesn’t seem to answer – Ezekiel 19, Part 2”
Crying as a spiritual practice – Ezekiel 19, Part 1
I recently attended the baptism of my niece. It was wonderful to hear her share the story of her faith in Christ, her commitment to him, and why she wanted to be baptized. There was so much joy as my brother-in-law baptized her. That moment when she rose up out of the water, as itContinue reading “Crying as a spiritual practice – Ezekiel 19, Part 1”
When God feels like a dropped phone call – Ezekiel 2:1-3:15, Part 4
What does it mean to have a relationship with God? Is it just an intellectual concept that has little bearing on our real day-to-day lives? How do flesh and blood people have a meaningful relationship with invisible spirit? As a result, does God feel distant? Does it feel like God is something we read aboutContinue reading “When God feels like a dropped phone call – Ezekiel 2:1-3:15, Part 4”
Engaging Scripture 