As we look at Lamentations today we see a city in ruin and the prize lost to another civilization. Those who remain are either enslaved or sit in the ashes of poverty. This is the same group of people who were looking to the promised land and the future of being a privileged nation. Now they are on the list of just another conquered civilization.

Lamentations 1:1–3 (ESV): 

1 How lonely sits the city 

      that was full of people! 

      How like a widow has she become, 

      she who was great among the nations! 

      She who was a princess among the provinces 

      has become a slave. 

      2 She weeps bitterly in the night, 

      with tears on her cheeks; 

      among all her lovers 

      she has none to comfort her; 

      all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; 

      they have become her enemies. 

      3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction 

      and hard servitude; 

      she dwells now among the nations, 

      but finds no resting place; 

      her pursuers have all overtaken her 

      in the midst of her distress.

Sometimes we sit in the unfairness of life believing that we are the only ones who are receiving unjust treatment. In these times we believe we are alone and defenseless. We can be mad at God, others, and maybe even ourselves. Yet Lamentations remind us that it is healthy to lament over our circumstances. The definition of lamenting is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. In this moment of lament we are reminded of the brokenness of the world we live in. If we sit in lament it should move us to remember our desperate need for a Savior. This is the beginning of the road of repentance to forgiveness. Forgiveness is hard to discover if we do not have a need for repentance and repentance only really comes from the grief of a broken situation in our life and not from a disappointment in being caught in something. 

I am always amazed in our flower garden when I see life blooming from a dead plant or from the ashes of some forgotten piece of soil. This is forgiveness. When we receive it from a place of lament, it brings life and it renews our souls. 

Pastor Aaron