Welcome, SJT friends! I'm glad to be hosting today and I'm looking forward to reading what you share. Leave your post in the comments and I will round them up. I have comment moderation enabled, so you won't see your comment right away. I'll get to it as fast as I can.
The topic I chose today, given that we're in the second half of Lent, is Lament. The world has plenty to lament right now, and I suggested writing a Psalm of Lament. I wrote about this topic some here during the pandemic, and I quoted Aaron Niequist saying that a third of the Psalms in the Bible are about lament, whereas zero percent of modern worship songs are.
Here's my Psalm of Lament. I'm thinking of many people and places dear to me, but Haiti is always, always on my mind.
Lament
Lord,
our knees are sore
from praying,
our eyes are sore
from weeping.
How long, O Lord,
will
we wait
for health
for comfort
for change
for home
for justice?
How long
will
we see
the wicked prosper?
Have you seen
our trouble?
Do you care?
Have you forgotten us?
Rescue us!
We’re begging you!
Pull us from the flames,
from under the building collapsed in the earthquake,
from the waves where we’re drowning.
Save us!
Take away
the violence
the hatred
the displacement
the grief:
Give us a world full of your love,
a table where we can sit in peace and eat our meal,
a bed where we can sleep quietly at night.
Open the gate to the garden again
and let us in!
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Patricia's post is here, and she's written a heartfelt Psalm of Lament.
Karen just saw the migration of the Sandhill Cranes, and she's written a beautiful post full of gratitude. Oh, Karen, I hope to see that someday, and in the meantime, thank you so much for sharing it! You're right; sometimes lament can wait!
Linda wrote a lovely post on lament and different ways it presents itself in the world.
Bob has struggles that he's put into his own Psalm of Lament. Praying for Kathy!
Margaret is home with Covid. "I am the one whose branches are broken," she writes in her Psalm.
Fran modeled her writing on Psalm 13 and reminded us that Biblical lament always ends with coming back to deep trust in God.
Denise came back to praise too, in her rhyming lament, and she shares the structure: "Protest, Petition, and Praise."
Ramona wrote a Cento of Lament, taking lines from each of the previous posts.
11 comments:
Wow, Ruth, your lament is so real it brings tears to my eyes. I can feel the pain and suffering. Thanks for hosting. I will let you know when I've written.
Ruth, Thank you for this prompt. I, too, feel the heaviness. Lament is the perfect prayer. I love "Give us a world full of your love." It's all any of need, right?
My post will be found here --goes live my Thursday morning; so you may have to wait to post it.
https://patriciajfranz.com/blog-lamentation/
Ruth: Thank you for hosting and for this beautiful psalm of lament. I will write one later. Now I had to write about seeing the sandhill crane migration. I'm sure you will understand! My post is here: https://kceastlund.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-migration-of-cranes-and-poem-of.html
This is true lament--gut-wrenching. It's hard to witness and hard to look away. Thank goodness God holds us perfectly even in this heaviness --the word from Patricia. I love the idea of writing my own psalm. https://awordedgewiselindamitchell.blogspot.com/2025/04/lament.html
Ruth this is such a heartfelt lament. With so much destruction going on in the world we feel we are abandoned. We know we are not, yet we still can't fathom why the things that are happening continue to happen.
Here is the link to my post. Bob
https://arjeha.wordpress.com/2025/04/03/lament/
I finally got something written. I am fighting a bout of Covid. Here is a link: https://reflectionsontheteche.com/2025/04/03/spiritual-thursday-psalm-of-lament/
Ruth, thank you for hosting, and for offering the lament as a needed aid in our spiritual journey. The part that captivates me most about a lament is the trust. I trust - yet, this was a challenge to write! https://litbitsandpieces.com/2025/04/03/spiritual-journey-lament/
Ruth, your lament is beautiful and awful. God save us. I can feel the deep love you have for Haiti and Uganda and all the places you have been and loved. So much injustice and brokenness. It's heartbreaking, and we need to lament. Thank you for being here and hosting today.
https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/2025/04/03/spiritual-journey-thursday-lamenting/
I show up late with a collage, a Cento of Lament, with lines from each of your poems. Thanks for your contribution. There is much to lament and perhaps giving voice to it will strengthen our faith and trust. It saddens me to know that you have experienced so much loss in the places you have lived. Our world needs heaven's help for sure.
Ruth, you've given us a gift we didn't know we needed. My lament is a cento poem with lines collected from each of the writers this month.
Here's my link: https://pleasuresfromthepage.blogspot.com/2025/04/sjt-npm-day-4-cento-of-lament.html
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