Lament

Tiger and Phil in the same tournament for two straight weeks. This could be interesting.

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Words from John Mark Hicks' book, Yet Will I Trust Him:

Suffering is an intensely personal experience. Others cannot experience what the sufferer at that moment experiences. They cannot understand. The sufferer sits alone . . . Nevertheless, the questions, doubts, and despair of the single sufferer are the same as those of a million sufferers. We all ask, "Why me?" "Why this?" "Why now?" and "Why doesn't God do something?" We all ask, "Where is God?"

Like C. S. Lewis, after the death of his wife of three years, I was not "in much danger of ceasing to believe in God" as much as "coming to believe such dreadful things about Him."

Could Scripture speak to the aching heart? Could it provide a place for lament? I entered a new world, the world of faithful lament. Faithful lament was a new category for me. How can lament, with its accusations, bewilderment, doubt, tears, and frustrations, express faith? Prior to my own personal suffering, lament was unknown to me. Christianity was a faith of joy, celebration, and hopeful anticipation.

My worldview was dominated by triumphalism. God's army will conquer. We will set the world aright. We will establish the perfect church. My outlook had no room for lament.

But my own suffering forced me to lament because the believer, who continues to believe, can only lament in the midst of suffering. Lament, with all its confusion, desperation, and doubt, expresses the sufferer's faith. Lament does not disown God; it appeals to him . . . to rescue the one who has been faithful to him.