67: Hope in the Midst of Lament (with Aubrey Sampson)

What does it look like to lament in suffering and hold onto the hope of the resurrection? Sharing from Scripture and her own experiences, author Aubrey Sampson invites us to bring our laments to the Lord.

• The Louder Song by Aubrey Sampson
• “Lament means an impolite plea, so you are, with as much audacity and rawness as you can muster, crying out to God in your grief and anger.”
• “We’re not crying out to avoid. We’re not expressing [our laments] to nothingness. We’re giving them to God Himself, who knows suffering, walks with people who are suffering, promises that he is with us in our suffering, and does something redemptive in our suffering. The beauty is that the invitation is to cry out to God rather than sit and wallow and allow despair to take over.”
• “There is a treasure trove of sufferers who have gone before us - and not pretended like their suffering didn’t exist.”
• “Not only has He given all of His children permission to cry out in lament, but He’s given us a really beautiful example and language that we can use in our own lament as well.”
• “If we want true intimacy with God, that’s going to mean seasons of doubt and frustration and suffering and pain. But because God is so good, He invites us to come to Him with those things rather than walk away from Him in defeat and doubt.”
• “That’s the kindness of God: He knows that in our heartache and devastation, sometimes we can’t formulate what to say, and so we can just open Scripture and read those laments back to God as a way to begin that work of lamenting.”
• “Most laments in Scripture begin with the word ‘how.’”
• “In our darkness and in our despair and in our disorder, God is not far removed [...] He is Emmanuel God.”
• “We want answers, and we don’t get that. But what we always get in our seasons of crying out to God is God’s presence and God’s with-ness with us.”
• “The best thing we can do is sit with people in their pain.”
• “We worship a Suffering Servant. He entered into our suffering and took on our suffering, and the promise is that there will be an end to suffering because of Jesus’s work on the cross.”
• “O Jesus, in deepest night and agony, you spoke these words of trust and surrender to God the Father in Gethsemane, and I want to say in times of fear and distress those same words: My Father, I do not understand You, but I trust You.”
• “The will of God is always resurrection, not destruction. It’s always beauty, not ashes. It’s always hope, not defeat.”
• “We should never be quick to brush past the suffering of Jesus, our own suffering, and the suffering of other people, but we can look to our suffering with that good end in mind, which is always Jesus’s victory.”

“A Liturgy Before Mourning with Those Who Mourn” by Douglas McKelvey, from Every Moment Holy, Volume II

What’s changing our lives:

• Aubrey: Korean dramas on Netflix
• Heather: Friends having kids
• Keane: Meeting neighbors

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