Crossway[1] Podcaster, Matt Tulley interviewed Mark Vroegop author of Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy. Here are some quotable quotes:
“Yes. I think lament in its essence is more
process-oriented than what we’re familiar with. Lament doesn’t tie everything up in a
nice bow. Sometimes it leaves the tension hanging in the air with unsolved
problems, but a renewed commitment that I’m going to trust the Lord in the middle
of all of this. While there are a bunch of things that I
can’t control, a bunch of things that I can’t change or do, the one thing that
I can do is talk to God.”
“I think the Christian life is in the space where we know
God is sovereign, but the world is also broken. Those two things don’t always go
together really well. You know that God is good, but there are events in life
that it’s hard to make a direct connection between this specific event and
God’s goodness. It’s
precisely because of the fact that we believe that God is sovereign and that we
believe he’s good that Christians complain. We say to
God, How long, O Lord? Would you intervene? Why haven’t you intervened? Rather
than throwing that in God’s face—You need to intervene because I’m telling you
you need to intervene—lament actually enters into the space to say, God,
you’re sovereign. You’re in control. You’re all-powerful. And yet, this
brokenness is right here. I want it to be gone. I want you to do something. Lament wrestles with pain while also
looking to God as the ultimate answer for that pain, with the hope that we can
really fully place our trust in him.”
“I
think, sadly, that many Christians believe that being a faithful follower of
Jesus means that you never struggle with doubt, you never wrestle with despair,
you’re not battling anxiety on a regular basis. They come to church, people ask
them how they’re doing, and they fake it: Oh, we’re
fine! Praise the Lord! But inside, their spiritual life is a train wreck
and they don’t think that it’s okay to acknowledge, I’ve got unanswered
questions. I have tension in my soul about God’s goodness and what’s happening
in my life. So, lament enters that rather complicated terrain by saying here’s
a way to talk to God about that tension.”
“Absolutely.
In fact, I think it takes a lot of faith to lament. I think lament is one of
the most theologically faith-filled things that a Christian could possibly do.
In the middle of the darkest of dark moments, when your pain is so raw and so
real, you have the faith to talk to God about your pain. If faith isn’t
present, you would give God the silent treatment, you wouldn’t talk to him, you
would just be angry, you would be resigned and say that God really doesn’t
care. But in the middle of your darkest moment, you’re talking to God about
what’s wrong with the world. You’re asking him to be true to his promises and
recommitting that you’re going to trust in him. I don’t know what could be more
faith-filled than that.”
[Emphasis is
mine]
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