I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light. Lamentations 3:1-2 ESV

I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD. Lamentations 3:17b-18 ESV

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him.          Lamentations 21-25a ESV

As you can tell, I have been reading through Lamentations. Lamentations 3 is believed to have been written by the prophet, Jeremiah, who had been prophesying that the sins of the people of Judah would bring down God’s wrath. Jeremiah writes this lament after the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the exile of the people to Babylon.

A lament is expressing our honest emotions to God when life is not going as planned, acknowledging struggles with honesty, not just feeling sorry for ourselves.

We have all had troubles and times when things just weren’t going the way we had planned. I had just been given a promotion! I was asked to fill a new position as a special education itinerant teacher. I was to travel the county working with classroom teachers to observe, evaluate, and refer students into special programs or to mainstream special students back into regular classrooms.

I had been working for a few months when an incident with one of my students changed my life. I wasn’t aware of any problem until I heard him say that I had been silent for over 5 minutes! I was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. No more driving, the new job was over. After beginning medication, I still was not permitted to drive for a year.

I’m sure I lamented to God about losing the job I had been so excited to begin. But after lamenting, maybe even doing a bit of complaining, I realized that God had also protected me. I had not had a seizure or accident while driving all those miles. The school system assigned me to other special education classrooms where I could assist the teachers.  And like Jeremiah, I found many things to thank God for and to praise Him for working things out for my good.

My husband dropped me off at school each morning and at every school, someone volunteered to take me home in the afternoon. I made new friends and got to continue teaching and working with kids. God is good even in the midst of our troubles!

When troubles come, and they will, let’s go to God with our laments and questions and our honest feelings. But, like Jeremiah, let’s also remember God’s everlasting love and faithfulness for us and find praise even in our troubles.

I thank God for each of you! And I thank you for joining me this week as we give praise to God even in our troubles.

Blessings and praises!