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Editor’s Note: In this issue we’re bringing back an old feature that helps us unpack the overall theme a little more. Throughout this issue of Conversations we’re exploring race and spiritual formation. While the editors invite a variety of voices to the table, we have come to believe it may be helpful to our readers if we offer some definitional clarity as an anchor point. As Soong-Chan Rah’s article, “An American Dirge,” describes, the practice of praying prayers of lament, individually and communally, connects our hearts to the heartbeat of God. The reality of reconciliation and redemption come when we begin to see this world with his heart.

Learning what to do with our pain and grief is a huge part of the Christian journey. Culture says, “Buck up. Get a grip. Control your emotions. Don’t feel. Don’t talk. Stuff the pain. Pretend or medicate if you have to—but get over it and move on.” Christian culture can say, “if you are full of faith, you won’t get hurt, confused, and discouraged. You won’t feel hopeless or have a life filled with pain and loss.” This myth doesn’t do justice to our lives, to Scripture or to the life of Jesus.

The liquid entreaty of tears is a huge part of the biblical text. Orphans, slaves, widows, sinners, cities, prophets, priests, kings, the oppressed, sick, exiled, defeated and bereaved—all weep. Jesus weeps (John 11:35). And he’s in good company because God started grieving over the mess his best beloved had made just six chapters into Genesis (Genesis 6:6). The Trinity seems quite at home in the watery world of tears. Jesus, the man of sorrows, teaches that those who weep and mourn are “blessed” (Matthew 5:4). The Holy Spirit prays for us with “wordless groans” (Romans 8:26, NIVAll Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™).

Sometimes the best response to the brokenness of this world and my own life is a mixture of tears and prayers. Something about them puts us in solidarity with human misery. At the end of our resources we seem wired to weep and cry, “help.” In fact, research on tears confirms that they wash away toxins and release endorphins that help restore psychological balance. Tears and prayers of lament won’t solve the problem of suffering, but they can stanch the raw nerve of pain by throwing us into the arms of God.

Prayer of Lament
Desire	To take my complaints, anger, sufferings, frustrations and heartaches to God.
Definition	Prayers of Lament are ways to approach God with the realities of sorrow, frustration and angst that consume and distract.
Scripture	“Why, O Lord do you reject me and hide your face from me? From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. . . . You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.” (Psalm 88:14–15, 18, NIV 1984)
	“My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psalm 42:3)
	“Cry out to the Lord . . . let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest.” (Lamentations 2:18)
Practice Includes	Putting words to the contents of my heart
	Trusting God to hold the pain while I cry and rail
	Praying the psalms of lament: community laments (Psalms 12; 44; 58; 60; 74; 79; 80; 83; 85; 89; 90; 94; 123; 126; 129); individual laments (Psalms 3; 4; 5; 7; 9; 10; 13; 14; 17; 22; 25; 26; 27)
God-Given Fruit	Honesty
	Awareness of your internal weather
	Trust in God’s ability to hold all of you
	Going to the depths with God rather than catastrophic thinking
	Casting your burdens on God rather than shouldering them alone