The Art of Lament

Reconciliation without lament cheapens hope. 

To be deeply bothered about the way things are is itself a sign of hope. 

It is crucial to remember that lament is not despair or a cry into a void.  Lament is a cry directed to God.  Lament is prayer. 

Through lament we come to that hard place of knowing that we cannot "achieve" reconciliation.  It is always a gift from God.

Reconciling All Things.  Emmanuel Katongole & Chris Rice.  Pg. 88, 89

During VUP, we started off the first week with the prophets.  In general, the prophets talk a great deal about lament.  Specifically around injustice that God's people are doing to each other.  I remember as we were talking about being prophetic, students would be showing and displaying their dissatisfaction.  Canadian things like:

"I don't want to disappoint people."
"I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable."
"That's not a nice thing to say."

As I listened to this along with about 10 other reasons, I realised that our millennial generation does not know how to be prophetic because there is an avoidance of lamenting, grieving, and truth telling.
The week progressed and we heard from numerous speakers and studied various passages.  One passage that stuck out was from Jeremiah 29.  I was shocked to hear that as we studied this, we landed on the reality that us as Canadians are more aligned with the Babylonians and in some ways, we are worse than the Babylonians.  As we landed, I could see some of the distress and confusion in my students faces.  Some of them started accepting this reality while others tried to talk about something completely different.

The following week, we focused on the life of Jesus.  We wanted to go out of lament and into hope, but it seemed like the Holy Spirit had other plans for us.  Crisis' came throughout the week that forced us to see and acknowledge the brokenness and privilege around us.  Talks around sexuality and pornography were particularly striking.  Instead of focusing on the life of Jesus, we had to come face to face with our privilege and lament over the brokenness that our Canadian and societal culture has caused to women and our indigenous brothers and sisters.  Following these conversations and realisations, came tears, anger, frustration, personal repentance, corporate repentance, etc.  Students and staff were in tears almost daily.  They were calling each other to pray for them as they lamented over these tough realities.

The final week we focused on the movement of the Holy Spirit in the church.  What we found interesting in this is that more crisis came up.  Yet, this time it felt different.  The students and staff chose to accept that things were broken.  They embraced the sadness and felt the pain.  Then, as they felt the pain, they turned to Jesus as the one that has authority over all of this brokenness.  It was beautiful!  A community of believers lamenting over injustice together and coming to Jesus together.  This came out through prayer walks of being led by the Holy Spirit; The Beauty and the Brokenness Project in inviting our friends and families to experience the journey from lament to joy.

Even though the situations around us didn't change all that much.  We came to a deeper sense of joy and hope in Christ's Gospel of Reconciliation for this world.  The fact that we continue to lament and lament well has enabled us to receive true hope in Christ and what he died for.

I came out of VUP with a greater hope that as we (the millennial generation) learn how to lament well with our other brothers and sisters, it will enable us to be seeking a much deeper level of what this Kingdom of God is supposed to look like here on this earth.