Hope in Lament(ations)

I bumped into the prophet Jeremiah the other day in a little book in the Old Testament.

Somewhere in the middle of Lamentations, I remembered why I tend to avoid reading this piece of history.

It's five chapters of deep, mournful loss.

As a result, it is a HARD READ!

On the surface, if ever there was a book of hopelessness, this is it.

Jerusalem had just fallen into brutal, vicious, evil hands. To even think about describing what took place during this time of history, gives me chills. So, I won't. It's the absolute worst you can imagine!

Quite bluntly, however, Jeremiah elaborates on this devastation with utmost clarity.

He calls it like it is.

The eyes of the people are flowing with tears, finding no comfort..."weeping bitterly in the night, with tears on [their] cheeks."

Jerusalem's ruin is as "vast as the sea."

The city has become the place where souls are "bereft of peace" and "endurance has perished."

Her dwellers have "forgotten what happiness is."

Jeremiah cries out to the Lord, "Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me..."

Worse than the fall of Jerusalem is what appears to be the absence of God.

"I cry for help, and my prayer is shut out..."

"My hope from the Lord has perished..."

"I am filled with the gall of bitterness; and sated with wormwood..."

I think you have gotten a glimpse into the extreme loss of hope;
and, the words of the Weeping Prophet may resonate in your souls.

Like me, you may ask one question:

"Why would the Lord allow such a disheartening story to appear in His Holy Word?" 

One would think that Scripture would be filled with encouragement.

If the Lord calls us to endurance, steadfastness, perseverance...and He does!...wouldn't He, like a cheerleader-type-Life Coach, or a rousing TED talk speaker, or the writer of a weekly blog, desire to spur us on with words of positivity?

After all, surely the Lord, who knows all things, is aware of the research on the power found in positive thinking, right?

Yet, that's not the overall "look" of Lamentations, and it does not stand alone. There are other difficult writings that flow throughout God's Word.

That's one thing about our Lord, He doesn't shy away from presenting life "as is."

His God-breathed Scriptures are filled with hard-stuff.
His Word is often unfiltered and R-rated.

So, why? Why is it there in all of its UGLY reality?

God delivers His story to us in harsh honesty, because there is hope to be found in the midst of what appears to be horrific hopelessness!

After a good deal of pondering, it struck me that the theme of Lamentations isn't at all what shows on the surface.

Surprisingly, it is filled with signs of confident expectation...and, at times, we have to read a little bit more between the lines to find it.

Of course, the most quoted part of Lamentations surprises us with wonderful poetic words of hope. There is nothing subliminal about this:

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who hope in him,

to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should wait quietly

for the...the Lord.

Lamentations 3:21-26

Another, more underlying message of hope is this:

When life is at it's worst; when we are completely at the bottom of a pit; when tough-stuff is all-consuming; God is on the move to do His best work.
There in the hard, the scene is being set for miracles to occur.
It's there, that the Lord has our full attention.
It's in that place, that we have no where else to look but up, and we won't be disappointed at what we see!

"I lift my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth (Ps 121:1)..."

It's there, in the fire, that gold is purified.
It's in the worst times, that the best lessons are learned.
It's in discipline, that perfect love is quite often revealed.
And, it's in the midst of the storm, that we find our safest shelter.

This is the HOPE in the midst of despair...

Don't be fooled by appearances.

Maybe...just maybe...when all seems lost is when we really are at the point of found.