By CBF field personnel Alicia and Jeff Lee

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!” Psalms 130:1-2

For a few years now, I (Alicia) have been leaning into the spiritual discipline of lament. We often rush past the uncomfortable feelings, desperate for relief and something more pleasant. Rushing past the anger and frustration left things unresolved within me. Lament became my outlet to bring my anger to God.

In my ministry role, I sit with children and teens while they disclose and recount the trauma they have experienced, experiences many of us will never understand. I sit with their parents while they question and cry out to God in a pain that I cannot possibly describe.

I look at our hurting, broken world. War rages on. The suffering of humanity, often at the hands of humanity, breaks my heart—the anger wells in me, the tears of grief and sorrow come. Thus, I lament. I cry out to God in my lament, and I imagine the Divine already there weeping as if to say, “I too am brokenhearted.”

Pray, Practice, Ponder: Lament

God of loving-kindness, your heart, like mine, must also be broken.
The pain is unbearable. The experiences are unimaginable. People are being traumatized. Your children, they are dying, O God.
Do you not see? Do you not hear? Where then are you, O God? With the child hiding in the closet as their parents fight, are you there? Are you there with the teenager as they feel hopeless and self-harm?
Be ever so near, oh God. Bring healing, bring peace, restore the brokenhearted.

The pain is unbearable. The experiences are unimaginable. People are being traumatized. Your children, they are dying, O God.
Do you see what is happening? Are you there?
Be ever so near, oh God. Bring healing, bring peace, restore the brokenhearted.
Are you there with the wife who cries herself to sleep? Or with the father who grieves the death of his child?

Do you see what is happening? Are you there?
Do you not see? Do you not hear? Where then are you, O God? Are you there, in the basement, while people hide from the bombs? Are you on the frontlines with those who protect their families and country?
Your children, they are dying, O God.
God of loving-kindness, your heart must also be broken.

This prayer appears in the 2022-2023 edition of Prayers of the People, the annual prayer guide of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, edited by Rev. Meg Lacy Vega. Download the digital version or order free print copies of Prayers of the People at www.cbf.net/pray.