How often in our preparations for Christmas do we forget to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ? While the prophet Isaiah prays that God will tear open the heavens and come to us, Jesus instead comes humbly, in ways we least expect. How can we be alert and attentive this Advent season so we don’t miss when Jesus comes among us?
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In times of trauma and grief, it feels like all the structures that keep our lives stable have been stripped away. But as we enter into the process of Lament, those structures begin to reemerge. It’s not daylight yet, but we can begin to sense that the long night of our grief is ending. Hope draws us together and invites those voices who have long been silenced to be front and center.
Continue readingWe build our lives around all kinds of things that make us feel secure, in control or valuable. But these things cannot give us the meaning and purpose we crave. In Lamentations 4, we see God strip these things away from the people of Jerusalem that they might return to worshipping God alone. How can we return to God before our own idolatry ruins us?
Continue readingWhen do we stop praying for healing? What does solidarity look like with those who are hurting? Artist and theologian Katie Fisher shares from Lamentations 3. Putting dust in our mouths is at once an act of solidarity and a declaration of hope.
Continue readingWhat does it look like when God gets angry at us? Lamentations illustrates that God’s anger is God giving us what we want – life apart from God. How can we learn to see God’s anger as an aspect of God’s love – and an invitation to life?
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