Welcome to Lament

“So you’re saying there’s nothing wrong with getting angry with God?”

This is what I asked a friend, who happened to be a seminary dean, during a discussion about the Uvalde shootings and the anger and loss that many were feeling.

Or insert any other present-day scenarios that evoke a sense of frustration or bewilderment, and cause us to question God and his ways – like COVID-19, police brutality, etc.

“That’s what the Bible’s Lament Psalms were about,” he told me. “They were written to express to God someone’s honest anger or sadness or frustration in the face of some kind of loss. God uses that process to bring peace out of our pain.”

Psalm 13:1-6 is a classic example of a biblical lament. David’s cry was heartfelt and honest:

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.”

My friend’s answer brought much-needed clarity to how I perceived difficult circumstances in my life or world events.

As a culture, we’re not used to lamenting – at least, not in the way the Bible intends.

Merriam-Webster defines lament as: “to express sorrow, mourning, or regret for often demonstratively, or to regret strongly.”

You can end up stuffing many feelings when you don’t know how to lament or grieve properly. These feelings can then surface as mental health issues such as anger, emptiness & sadness, or even physical conditions.

In most cases, only God can help you face tough losses and situations and deal with them appropriately, so you continue to live a healthy, thriving life.

When we dreamed up the DrawNear app, we knew we wanted to combine Lament’s very effective Biblical principles with neuroscience’s most advanced learning methods.

Over a decade, with hundreds of people following our frameworks, Lament was tested, refined, and re-tested.

We heard over and over from participants about the power of going to God for help with the pain of their losses.

Our team of theologians and learning science practitioners put all of this together with Biblical practices and a neuroscience-based process called Deep Practice to make learning deep, rapid, and enduring.

It’s packaged into the DrawNear app, the Christian habit-building app that helps you create a habit out of calling on God amid life’s struggles.

Ready to turn all the pain from your life’s losses over to God?

Would you like to trade your anger, sadness, and grief for a new sense of peace?

Then, Welcome to Lament.