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Feb 10, 2024 06:00am

Love and Lament

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Around this time of year, we are inundated by symbols of love. There are decorative hearts taped to walls, sugary heart-shaped cookies lining the edges of the stores going in and going out, and candies in heart-shaped boxes of all sizes. There are commercials pushing us to purchase jewelry to demonstrate our love, parties with cards to exchange for even the youngest of us, cheesy movies portraying romantic conflict-usually resolved in a beautiful ending.

And the list goes on and on.

It is remarkable how the whole world can find a way to focus on love for one short day. But, the “love” being celebrated and embraced is not always genuine love. The world’s view of love is not necessarily bad. It is just much less than what God offers. The world’s view of love is usually self-focused, contingent on one’s own desires. It is finicky and temporary. It is earned and lost.

The ultimate love was shown to us and continues to be shown to us by Jesus.

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John 3 explains how God loves us so much that He gave His life for us to atone for our sins. He died, so that we don’t have to-even though we deserve death, and He does not. That is ultimate love- undeserved, gracious and merciful love.

As Christians, we celebrate that love and find steady hope in the gift of salvation God has given us. Regardless of any trial we face, we can rest in the hope of the gospel. We also have the gift of knowing that “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) The good that God promises here is sanctifying-making us more like Him, and that is a gift of love we can lean on for hope and peace.

That being said and exclaimed with fervor, it is important that we are able to remember the message Jesus has for us in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

We WILL have trouble. We WILL face hard times. They will be used for the glory of God and the good of His people, but we can be certain that we will still struggle. And, embracing the hope God gives us does not mean that we must face those hard times with blind hope. God knows we need Him, and He shows us His faithfulness every time He brings us through struggles.

Romans 5:3-5 reminds us that, “…We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

What I have never read in the Bible is that we should just put on a happy face and be okay when things are hard. Rather, God’s Word gives us example after example of how to be open and honest about the pain we face. God desires our genuine love and heart. Sometimes that means we sit in sorrow. Over ⅓ of the book of Psalms is lament. When we pour out our hearts to God, with complete honesty, baring our pain and asking Him for help, that is a holy experience. We are praying a deep, gutteral discussion with God in the space between hardship and trusting in the sovereignty of God.

Lamenting is part of love. Knowing God cares about the things we care about even more than we can imagine is embracing His love. It turns our focus toward God, as we become even more aware of how little we control. Lament is a cry out of raw, real love-nothing superficial. So, as a follower of Christ, we can embrace His deep, genuine love and trust Him with our lament.