Mourning to dancing
Twenty years ago this week, London experienced horrific suicide bombings on its transport system, made more poignant because the day before the city has been chosen to host the 2012 Olympics. Dancing quickly turned to mourning as news came in of 52 deaths and nearly 800 people injured. The pain and hurt still resonates with those affected and Londoners two decades later.
When a nation experiences shared grief, communal lament offers a way to process that grief and provides a language to express sorrow and ask to God to help and heal. Over a third of the psalms are laments and provide examples of coming to God with grief too heavy to carry. The good news is that God delights in helping us in our troubles. Communal lament may start with our grief, despair and questions but it always ends with trusting the character of God.
There are no glib or easy answers to human pain and suffering, but it is something that God is not immune to. On the cross, God’s own beloved Son suffered in great agony in order that we might be healed of all our agonies. Because Jesus went through this for us, we can trust God with our pain and know that a time is coming when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4), and that our mourning will be turned to dancing (Psalm 30:11).
May God speed that day.
In Christian love,
Barry Robinson
About the Writer:
Barry Robinson is the Deputy National Ministry Leader for GCI in the UK & Ireland