Bonus Content: Lamentations Ch. 2

Trust is essential to living.

Friendships, classrooms, marriages, workplaces, and churches rise and fall on trust. You know when you have and feel it when you've lost it. Trust leads you to do radical things, and mistrust leaves you challenged to do or say anything. You cannot live without trust.

The truth is that trust is fluid. It changes, adapts, ebbs, and flows and can mature or disintegrate. And until recently, I don't think I realized how laments are a deep, rich, and essential part of building and maturing trust - with God and others.

Regarding the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann is one of today's most respected thinkers, scholars, and influencers. In his book Prophetic Imagination, he writes: "Jesus sees that only those who mourn will be comforted. Only those who embrace the reality of death will receive the new life. His statement implies that those who do not mourn will not be comforted, and those who do not face the endings will not receive the newness."

He continues: "I used to think it curious that, when having to quote Scripture on demand, someone would inevitably say, 'Jesus wept.' It is usually done as a gimmick to avoid quoting a longer passage. But now I understand the depth of that verse. Jesus knew what we numb ones must always learn again: (a) that weeping must be real because endings are real, and (b) that weeping permits newness. His weeping permits the kingdom to come. Such weeping is a fearful dismantling because it means the end of all machismo; weeping is something kings rarely do without losing their thrones. Yet the loss of thrones is precisely what is called for."

Lamentations 2 is one of the "darkest" chapters in the scriptures. It illustrates the depth of human suffering, loss, grief, and raw bitterness. And when we lament - whether to God or others, we set aside both our machismo super-human tendencies and our self-loathing. We become known for who we really are: human.

Laments means the end of all of our machismo. While often ascribed to a specific culture or gender, machismo is part of every human heart in 587 BCE and 2024 CE. Scholars and social commentators agree that machismo is human pride amplified by aggressive or oppressive human expressions. It shows itself in dishonoring behaviors toward others, seeking power over people and situations, controlling issues, and, to its furthest extent, human abuse of every kind. Spiritually speaking, it is when one is filled with ego and void of humility.

Whether you call it machismo or sin, trust erodes, and we need a way back to God and with each other. Author and Former Pastor Paul David Tripp writes in Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change: "The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed." When we lament the darkness of our machismo heart, we see the light shining through the entire time (John 1:5).
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When we speak our truth, God hears us. When we lament the darkness of our hearts, God receives it. When we nail the machismo-ness onto Jesus who hangs on the cross (confession), trust is rebuilt… because we'll discover in Lamentations 3 - God's faithfulness and His mercy is new every moment (Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 John 1:9). . . especially in our human-ness. Then, we can begin trusting God and each other because we see who we are - completely loved, forgiven, and human.

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