One Last Lament and the Heart of God

I can't tell if January flew by or dragged on - somehow this year it did both, as only time during COVID can.  But here we are, on the last day of the month, and with just enough time for one final post on 'lament'.

I can think of no better or more beautiful piece to end on than this dance by Alex Wong and Allison Holker on the competition show So You Think You Can Dance, where in less than two minutes they express more about lament than I have in a month:

Sorrow can be oddly beautiful.  I've found that when we see an expression of sorrow from another person, it stirs a part of our hearts that belongs to God - the part of our being that was created to love and empathize, that part of our spirits which feels a compulsion in the presence of sorrow to bring comfort and encouragement.  That stirring is a beautiful, even holy, thing.  Even in situations where there is nothing we can tangibly do for the person in pain, the presence of that heart-stirring longing to love and care for a suffering human is a glimpse of God in us.  It's a moment of holiness.

Although I'm glad to exit lament in the coming months and look for other aspects of a life of faith in the arts around us, I'm also grateful for this past month to sit for a moment in those feelings of grief and sadness.  Ultimately, I'm grateful that this time leads me to compassion; to a heightened awareness that human emotion is universal, and God doesn't call us to shy away from it.

In the striking final seconds of the dance above, Alex reaches down to his distraught partner who's crumpled on the floor.  Even in his own grief, he pulls her up again, and the two of them march - resolutely, painfully, determinedly - into the future.  They are changed by their sorrow, but they are ever moving forward, together.  May that be a picture of our life of faith in the midst of broken world.  Resolute.  Changed.  Together.

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed ..." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)