“Wise Women Worship: Encountering the Healing Presence of God through Lament”

Though I was born into a Christian family and experienced some very good aspects of Christian community growing up, I’ve realized that much of my spiritual formation was terribly lacking in emotional-relational intelligence. Complex and difficult emotions were ignored, plastered over by trite statements about God’s goodness, condemned as ungodly, or scorned as a particularly female vice. I came to assume that a “mature” Christian was someone who had mastered, by force of their will, all such complex and messy emotions. Imagine my surprise, then, when my study of the Bible brought an increasing awareness that God not only welcomes but also willingly engages with our raw, brutally honest, and messy emotional-relational experiences. Scripture has taught me that lament prayer pours out pain, confusion, anguish, and vomitous mess at the feet of God because it affirms that he is the only one who can take all of the mess and give us life in exchange. I have learned that lament is one of the most profound forms of worship because it is grounded in the wisdom that fears God above all the horror that earthly circumstances can throw at us. The small-but-mighty book of Habakkuk will be our guide for learning about and experiencing lament prayer that offers us a pathway for encountering the healing presence of God in the midst of the chaos and brokenness all around us.