Hope amidst Hopelessness: Wednesday

Wednesday March 17, 2021

Created by Michelle Tucker

Lamentations 2:19

“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!”

Devotion

In Lamentations, we are invited into Jeremiah’s grief at seeing his city and people conquered by foreign invaders. “How lonely sits the city…” he says, “is there any sorrow like my sorrow…”

I listened to a TedTalk recently where Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, quoted Vaclav Havel, a poet and political dissident who fought against communism in Eastern Europe and eventually became president of the Czech Republic. When discussing the difficulty and oppression he faced, Havel said: “…mostly what we needed was hope, an orientation of the spirit, a willingness to sometimes be in hopeless places and be a witness” (emphasis mine).

If asked to name our own “hopeless places,” I could come up with many examples from the last year. But there were also folks who bravely stood in the gap, shining a light in the darkness: journalists who uncovered injustice, medical professionals who spoke truth, protestors and organizers who refused to let suffering and discrimination go unnoticed any longer.

I love that Lamentations gives us permission to be angry at God when everything seems lost. There is no sin in grief. But it also challenges us to be present amidst that grief. To not turn away from the suffering, but instead name it. Because in calling out what is hopeless, we are inherently hopeful that things can be better. When we are courageous enough to name what is wrong, we can then work to make things right.

Lamentations 3:21–24

21 But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

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

“therefore I will hope in him.”

Prayer

Good and gracious God, help us to find hope in this weary season. Amen.