May 21, 2023

Our final Healthy Habit is an aspect of the spiritual life that you may not hear a lot about but is a habit we all need to develop; Lamenting. The society we live in is very good at gathering information and expressing opinions, but we are not so good at dealing with strong emotions. We have all seen it, or worse, we have done it: bottled emotions up inside us until they erupt from the core of our being in a very disruptive and embarrassing manner. Learning to deal with emotions is a habit we all need to develop. Mainstream society does not provide an environment needed to properly deal with our emotions: you will be criticized, condemned or viewed as flawed. Part of the good news of the Gospel is God provides a safe and effective way for us to deal with our emotions. In the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Psalms we find the genre of The Lament. The Lament is a way to appropriately express our emotions in a way that honors God and helps us grow spiritually. Laments are a lot like Blues music. Blues songs start off by voicing a problem, followed by how that makes them feel (blue), concluding some resolution to the problem so they can move on with life. The Blues provide an outlet for the person feeling emotional pain. Laments in the Old Testament follow a similar structure with a major difference. While Laments express their emotion directly to God, they also take comfort in the faithfulness of God and discover the peace they need because of God’s unchanging character. What are the emotions you are struggling with right now? How are you dealing with them? You don’t need to feel defeated by them because in His infinite love for us, God always has time to listen to our hurts, providing the assurance we need to grow, even through the most difficult emotional distress. Join us this Sunday as we conclude our Healthy Habits Series with learning to lament.