Laments for Lent – Entreaty

Psalm 10:12-15–

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.

For this fourth Sunday of Lent, I’m looking at the fourth part of a Lament – the Entreaty, where the psalmist asks God to help.

As a review, here is the form most Laments in Psalms loosely follow:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

Something that has long struck me about the Entreaties I find in Psalms is that they are pretty general. While the psalmists get very specific in the complaint, describing their troubles, in the Entreaty, they ask God to act without really telling God what to do. (Though you can argue with me about “Break the arm of wicked men.” – I’m typing that rather enthusiastically, with a broken finger.)

I was told growing up to pray specific requests, so you know when God answers them. But isn’t that treating God a bit like a vending machine? Why not pray for God to deal with the situation – and trust God to figure out how to do that?

I mean, I’ve been praying, “Call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out,” but I would never have dreamed of asking God to have someone add a journalist to their text chain about bombing civilians! There’s a lot more room for God to work!

Some more examples:

Psalm 6:4–

Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.

Psalm 17:7-9–

Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.

Psalm 22:19–

But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

Here’s one to pray against people doing evil things, like depriving the vulnerable of their civil rights:
Psalm 28:4–

Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back on them what they deserve.

Psalm 35:22-25–

LORD, you have seen this; do not be silent.
Do not be far from me, LORD.
Awake, and rise to my defense!
Contend for me, my God and Lord.
Vindicate me in your righteousness, LORD my God;
do not let them gloat over me.
Do not let them think, “Aha! Just what we wanted!”
or say, “We have swallowed him up.”

Some are very poetic and inspiring. I love this one:
Psalm 43:3–

Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.

This Psalm of Confession has a beautiful one:
Psalm 51:7-12–

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

And I’m going to stop there for tonight. The Entreaty is the easiest part to find in the Laments – the part where the psalmist asks God to do something. Watch for this as you read Psalms.

And now, as I do each week, I’m going to pray a sample lament, using the six parts as prompts. My hope is that you will try this at home. (And I’d love to have some pasted into the comments!)

Still on my heart very much are people being abducted off the street without a warrant, their Constitutional rights stripped from them. (And there’s nothing in our Constitution that says the Bill of Rights is only for citizens.) So tonight’s lament is for them.

Lord God, hear our prayer,
listen to our cry.
We come to before you tonight
about vulnerable people
being abducted off the street
about people being seized by men in hoodies and masks
without a warrant,
without a hearing,
without a phone call,
without notice to family,
without any kind of due process,
without any regard for human rights.
We also pray about tourists put into detention
if someone doesn’t like what they find on their phone.
They are imprisoned,
deprived of medicine,
deprived of sleep,
treated as less than human,
deprived of any rights.
Lord, you see the sparrow fall.
You see when vulnerable people are wronged.
Lord, send forth your light and your faithful care;
let them know that you are near.
Don’t let the secret police continue to terrorize;
call them to account, Lord God!
Father, we know that evil doesn’t win in the end.
Help us to learn from this
and root out the injustice built into our system.
We know that you are a God of justice;
may we hear the cries of joy when prisoners are released.
Lord, we’ll never again take for granted
that America is a refuge for the tired and poor and the huddled masses learning to be free.
May we celebrate every immigrant we meet
and look forward to again being a place of refuge.

Okay, that’s my offering for tonight. I’m having a harder time with the “Subsequent Praise” section when it’s harder for me to imagine the resolution happening soon. But that’s part of the power of the Lament – imagining our joy after God works. And we’ll talk about that in a couple weeks. For now, I’ll keep trying to imagine an America that people want to immigrate to again.

Laments for Lent – Confession of Trust

Psalm 3:3-6–

But you, LORD, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the LORD,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.

For the third Sunday of Lent in my Laments for Lent series, we’re looking at the third part of the Lament, the Confession of Trust.

Here again is the acronym I made for the parts of a Lament in Psalms:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

It doesn’t surprise anyone that Laments contain a Complaint. But right after the Complaint, or sometimes in the middle of the Complaint, it’s as if the psalmists step back, take a deep breath, and remind themselves they really do trust God, and there’s a reason they’re coming to God in prayer.

These verses are beautiful expressions of trust – coming in the midst of deep trouble.

Here are a few more examples:

Psalm 143:5-6–

I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.

Psalm 74 is a group Lament from the nation of Israel. First it talks about how the nation has been ravaged and prophets are silent, and then we get this passage:

Psalm 74:12-17–

But God is my King from long ago
he brings salvation on the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.

Psalm 42 and 43 make a Lament together, and the Confession of Trust is a repeated refrain:

Psalm 42:5 & 11 and 43:5—

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
For I will yet praise him,
My Savior and my God.

Another comforting one:
Psalm 56:3-4—

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise –
In God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

And I’ll finish with a simple one:
Psalm 54:4—

Surely God is my help;
The Lord is the one who sustains me.

Again, not every Lament in Psalms has every part, sometimes the parts merge together, and sometimes they’re in a different order or parts are split up (the most common way having some more of the Complaint after a Confession of Trust). But you will find a theme that even in a hard time, after pouring out their hearts about their troubles, psalmists will remind themselves of God’s faithfulness and that they really do trust God – when they stop to think about it.

And that’s what I’d like to get out of the Laments this week. Don’t be afraid to pour out your heart to God in Complaint – but also take a minute and remember God’s faithfulness. Do you trust God? Take a moment to express that. It will calm your heart and help you be ready for the Entreaty – asking God to act.

As always, my hope is that you’ll try this form in your own prayers, so I’ll offer an example.

This week, I’m still thinking about politics and the horror that my own government is grabbing people without a trial or a warrant or any kind of hearing and sending them to El Salvador to be imprisoned and tortured, without a call to a lawyer or any notification of their loved ones. I’m going to pray for those people, made in God’s image, that this evil would stop.

Lord, hear our prayer,
and listen to our cry.

Humans, made in your image,
with families and loved ones
maybe some criminals, but maybe not,
maybe some gang members, but maybe not,
maybe people seeking a safer home,
maybe people looking for a better life,
maybe people here legally,
maybe people whose legal status was revoked–
but we don’t know any of it,
because they’ve been abducted in secret
with no warrant,
with no hearing,
with no trial,
with no due process of any kind,
with no regard for their human rights.

And they’re powerless to stop it;
and we feel powerless to stop it, too.
And a judge tried to stop it –
but is he powerless, too?

Father, if you see a sparrow fall
and know the number of hairs on each of our heads,
then you know the name of each one imprisoned
and you know every heart’s anguish and hear their cries.

O Lord, please act!
Please work in the hearts of your children
not to harden their hearts
because a politician told them to.
Show us how to speak;
show us how to act
to be able to stand against injustice
and bring the powerful to account.

Lord, I look forward to seeing your hand at work,
to seeing justice win victories large and small.
(May that justice come sooner rather than later.)

And may I remember to praise you after each victory, big or small,
and look forward to the day when the leaves of the tree of life
will bring healing to all the nations.
Even so, bring that healing, Lord.

Laments for Lent – Complaint

[Forgive me, but this picture of a heron on a gray day suits my mood, which fits the Complaint part of a Lament.]

Psalm 55:4-8–

My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen on me.
Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
I would flee far away and stay in the desert;
I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”

For the second Sunday of Lent in my Laments for Lent series, we’re looking at the second part of a Lament, the Complaint.

Here again is my acronym for the parts of a Lament:
A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

You’ll find the form is very loose for Laments in Psalms – but what they all have in common is the Complaint.

The Complaint usually comes after the Address to God, but sometimes the psalmist jumps right into the Complaint. Some that begin with questions combine the Address to God with the Complaint:

Psalm 13:1-2–

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?

The passage I quoted at the top of this post is only a small part of the Complaint from Psalm 55. The psalmist weaves a Complaint through all the other parts, coming back to it more than once.

And the main way the Psalms of Repentance are different from the Laments is in the Complaint section. In these Psalms, instead of the Complaint, there’s a Confession of Sin – now the trouble the psalmist is in is their own fault.

Here’s an example from a beautiful Psalm of Repentance:

Psalm 51:3-5–

For I know my transgressions
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

As gloomy as the Complaints sound when taken out of the rest of the Laments – they inspire me.

Because the Complaints in Laments decisively give the lie to the idea that we can only bring a happy face when we come before God, that acknowledging negative emotions means we’re lacking in trust.

No! If the psalmists can bring such gloom to God, then surely I can tell the Lord how I really feel.

It’s tricky to talk about this part of Laments, because most of the Complaint sections are not short. The psalmists really do tend to go on with this part. But you know what? That means that we can too, if that’s what we need. We can open our hearts and pour it all out to the Lord.

Here’s a list of Psalms I categorized as Laments: Psalms 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 17, 22, 28, 35, 42, 43, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 64, 70, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 86, 88, 102, 109, 137, 140, 142, and 143.

And the Psalms of Repentance: Psalms 6, 32, 38, 41, 51, 69, and 130.

So you see there are many to choose from. Read a few and notice the Complaint sections. Some of them sound a little whiny! But we’re allowed to be whiny to God!

And again, though the psalmists don’t precisely follow the form I’ve given for a Lament, they loosely do. But it makes a good list for us to follow in our prayers – no, not necessarily every time, but as a helpful tool when you have something to lament.

And again, my main goal in writing my book and these posts is to get others to try using these patterns from Psalms in their own prayers.

And each week I’ll give you a sample lament.

Today, though what I feel most grumpy about is my broken pinky finger, my heart is heavy because of the news of what our leaders are doing. My plan in writing an example psalm was to focus on current issues from today, and pull in some actual Complaints from the Laments in Psalms. But as I started doing that, Psalm 10 ended up hijacking the whole thing.

But I figure that’s all good. Another kind of example. I’ll leave in my beginning so you know what I’m thinking about when I use the words of the Psalm.

I do know that as soon as tomorrow, there will be more issues heavy on my heart, so I’m going to call this example:

A Lament for March 16, 2025:

Lord, I lift my voice to you;
I write this lament to you
and ask that you listen to my prayer
and hear my cry.

Lord, it seems that no one can stop the people in charge –
an urgent court order was ignored.
People are being disappeared and deported
without a warrant
and without due process.

“Not a word from their mouths can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies.” [Psalm 5]

[And now from Psalm 10:]
“In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.
In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

His mouth is full of lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
He says to himself, “God will never notice;
he covers his face and never sees.”

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God!
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
. . .
You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.”

Lord God, you’ve told us not to rejoice
when our personal enemy stumbles,
but may we live to see
the oppressor brought low,
and the greedy tyrant thwarted,
and may our hearts be glad
and our tongues praise you.

You all know who I’m talking about. See how applicable Psalms can be? But something I like about Psalms is they show us we don’t have to hold back when praying against evil – but they also remind us that God is bigger. I do believe that Good will win in the end – I only hope it will be sooner rather than later.

And I hope that God’s people are praying for justice. I hope that my small contribution encourages you to do so.

Laments for Lent – Address to God

Psalm 5:1-3–

Listen to my words, LORD,
consider my lament.
Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.

I’m writing a series Laments for Lent, and each week I will talk about one part of a Lament found in Psalms. I do encourage you to read the entire Psalm – we’re going to focus on one part.

Here’s an acronym for the form of a Lament:
A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

First, let me say that this is a very loose form – with few of the Laments having all the parts. However, you will find most of the parts in most of the Laments, and usually in that general order. More important is that the form makes a nice pattern for us to use in our prayers.

This week, we’re looking at the first part of most Laments – the Address to God.

This beginning doesn’t happen in all the Laments – some go straight to the Complaint. And you will find similar words in Psalms of other types – but this is a common beginning to these Laments where the psalmists are turning to God in a time of trouble.

The Address to God is what it says it is – telling God you’re here and asking God to hear your prayer. I love the one above from Psalm 5, especially because those are the words of a chorus I’ve sung since high school.

And when better to come to God than in a time of trouble? As the season of Lent begins, may we purpose in our hearts that the Lord will hear our voice in the morning.

Here are some more beginnings of Laments. Notice the parallelism we talked about last time.

Psalm 88:1-2–

LORD, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

Psalm 102:1-2–

Hear my prayer, Lord;
let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.

[This is the point in writing this post where I broke my left pinky finger and typing got harder. I may rethink this blog series, but want to at least finish this post.]

Psalms of Repentance have a similar form to Laments, but their address to God usually starts right off asking for mercy.

Psalm 51:1-3–

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 38:1–

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

And then there are the Laments that address God with a question. I go back and forth between thinking they just went straight to the Complaint and thinking yes, this is a different kind of Address to God.

Psalm 10:1–

Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Psalm 13:1–

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

And of course we can’t leave out this one:
Psalm 22:1–

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?

So my thoughts about this part of the Lament are these:
We can come before God.
We can come asking for mercy when we don’t feel like we deserve God’s favor.
We can even come to God with our angry questions. (And be sure to read the rest of those Psalms – they don’t end angry.)

Myself, I’ve gotten a habit of starting my prayers with “Dear Heavenly Father…” Think about mixing it up a little and starting your prayers with an Address to God like one of the ones above

For an example lament this week, even though I have plenty of questions about the political situation, I’m going to go petty this time with a smaller concern, trying to make the point that we can bring anything to God.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love.

Father, I feel so foolish.
I should have paid more attention.
I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk
and broke my left pinky finger.
Now it hurts to type,
so my plans for a blog series for Lent,
catching up on posting reviews,
posting Sonderbooks25
are going to be tougher.
For that matter, even washing dishes
and getting dressed
has become tougher.
And who am I to complain
when literally any other finger
would have been much worse?

But Lord Christ, I believe that you have lessons for me
when I fall on my face.
And I know you have compassion.
You never forgot that I am dust
and fallible –
but I have trouble remembering
and have now been reminded.

Jesus, grant me your peace.
Holy Spirit grant me healing and grace.
I suspect that dealing with my new limitations
will be tougher for me than dealing with pain.
Grant me that wisdom
and a sense of humor
and the joy of letting myself off the hook
for getting quite so much done.

Lord, I learned that my Mother once broke her left pinky finger, too.
And she said you don’t really appreciate your left pinky finger
until it’s hurting.
Just like you pointed out
that every member of the body of Christ
is important.
May I play my small part
and appreciate the other members of the body
who help me out when I’m hurting.

And may I remember,
when the splint comes off,
to thank you for my left pinky finger
and wiggle it with joy!

The above is offered as evidence that when you use the Lament form, the result doesn’t have to be profound!

I’m hoping next week to talk about Part 2 – the Complaint.

Laments for Lent – He Remembers that We Are Dust.

Psalm 103:8-18 (New International Version):

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children —
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

Okay, I’m cheating a little here. I’m beginning a series called Laments for Lent (Here’s my Intro post.) – and I’m beginning with Psalm 103, which is not a Lament, but a Psalm of Praise.

But this is my post for Ash Wednesday. (Yes, I know it’s happening Wednesday and Lent hasn’t started yet – but on Wednesday I’ll be going straight from work to singing in the choir for an Ash Wednesday service, so I thought I’d go ahead and post today.) And on Ash Wednesday, we think about how we came from dust and will return to dust. We also examine ourselves and repent of our sins.

And I want to encourage everyone: The Lord remembers that we are dust. We’re not surprising God with our failures and foibles. The Lord has compassion on us.

One of my favorite writers is the Irish mystic Lorna Byrne, and she says that in God’s eyes, we all are children. This matches what Psalm 103 teaches. When a toddler learning to walk stumbles, do good parents scold and berate them? No! God is a Father who has compassion on us, with love higher than the heavens.

I’m also using this passage as an introduction to Psalms. For the rest of Lent, I’m going to be looking at Laments and Psalms of Confession, but first let me point out the parallelism in Psalms. Hebrew poetry, rather than rhyming, takes the form of parallelism – a wonderfully translatable form. And yes, there are nuances in the original language, but speaking generally, ideas are repeated and lines mirror each other. Look at the parallelism in these lines:

He will not always accuse;
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

In the next verses, two lines are reflected at a time:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103 became my favorite 20 years ago after I found out my then-husband was seeing another woman behind my back. (I didn’t know then that it was actually an affair.) You’d think that would have filled him with shame, and it probably did. But his reaction was to tell me all the ways I was a terrible wife and he was “forced” to look elsewhere for “friendship.” And that I did not deserve his love or affection.

And the sad part of the story is that I bought it. Mind you, almost all his accusations were based in truth – he listed off things I’d done or said in anger over 18 years of marriage. Never mind if I hadn’t intended them as harsh as the way they’d come out. Never mind if I’d apologized. I was told that I was a terrible person and not even a good friend to my husband and didn’t deserve love.

And I was used to believing my husband. I thought he loved me. I knew I was a lovable person because he loved me. And he hadn’t clued me in on how hurt he was by the things I’d done and said until it all came out after I found out about him seeing this “friend” behind my back.  So I believed him that my terrible actions and words had destroyed my own marriage and hurt the one I loved most.

But in my devastation, thank God I came across this passage.

God will not always accuse.
The Lord will not harbor his anger forever.

I was told I didn’t deserve love. Well,
the Lord does not treat me as my sins deserve.

And now, twenty years later, happily single – sometimes I see friends agonizing over their own shortcomings. It seems like they think God is like my ex-husband, parceling out love only if we deserve it.

But no, God is like a good Father, having compassion on God’s children far greater than an earthly parent’s love.

And the Lord remembers that we are dust. Our mistakes don’t surprise God the way they do us. They don’t make God lash out in anger. Instead, like a Father or like a Mother, the Lord shows us compassion and helps us do better.

So those are my thoughts for Ash Wednesday and receiving the ashes.

In the upcoming series, for the remaining six Sundays of Lent plus Easter, I’m going to look at each of the parts of a Lament. I’ve made an acronym to help remember them:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

I also – always – am about encouraging folks to write their own psalms. For this introductory week, think about trying a little parallelism in your prayers. Pray a request, and then think of another way to say it. If nothing else, it helps slow things down and makes your prayer more meditative.

I’m going to close by writing a short sample lament. Wanting to keep it short, I will not go into as much detail as many of the Psalms do. I’m thinking of all my neighbors and friends who are federal employees facing chaos, so here’s a lament for them, including the seven parts.

Lord, I come before you
as a child to a compassionate parent.
I know that you hear;
I believe that you listen.

Lord, our government is in chaos;
norms and rules are being ignored.
People are losing their jobs willy-nilly,
with no notice
with no severance
with no chance to prepare.
Lives are being upended
and people don’t know where to turn.
Even worse is all the good work
being disregarded and denigrated
as if hard work serving others
is all a grift to steal from the very people they serve.

Father, we do trust you.
If you see the sparrow fall,
then you know about each life
facing the difficulties of job loss
or the withdrawal of benefits
depended on to get out of a hard space.

Lord, we ask you to act!
We ask you to work for justice!
Help those who have been wrongfully terminated,
those who have been abandoned,
those wrongfully detained and deported,
and all others harmed by recent actions.

Christ, there’s so much,
we don’t even know how to respond.
Send your Spirit and show us
what we can do
to speed the cause of justice,
to help the oppressed,
to call the mighty to account,
to aid the destitute.

Lord, the arc of the universe
does bend toward justice;
the path of history
does show oppressors losing.

We will rejoice with each victory,
big or small.
And we will watch to see
all the ways you will bring triumph out of loss.

May it be so, Lord. Thank you that though we came from dust, your compassion for us never fails.

Laments for Lent

The season of Lent is almost here.

And this year it’s coming at a rough time in northern Virginia. A large proportion of the population here is federal workers and federal contractors. And they’re suddenly losing their jobs, or at the very least losing their coworkers. Many who aren’t in that category themselves have family members who are. Every single person who lives in this area knows people affected by this chaos and turmoil.

I didn’t grow up in churches that observed Lent, but even the more conservative church I joined eighteen years ago had an Ash Wednesday service, and now it’s an important part of services at the United Methodist Church I attend. As I understand it, Lent is a time of self-reflection and confession in preparation for Easter.

And it seems like a good time to think about Laments.

I wrote a book called Praying with the Psalmists that takes the reader through the entire book of Psalms in 12 weeks. My full manuscript for that book is currently being considered by an agent – so instead of dithering and spinning my wheels as to what she might be thinking about it, I’ve decided to start on my next book. And I decided a wonderful follow-up will be Laments for Lent. [I know that title won’t necessarily attract readers – most people aren’t as enamored with Laments as I am. So I’m trying to come up with a good subtitle – if you have any ideas, post them in the comments!]

I love the Laments in Psalms, which may come as a surprise to folks not familiar with them. Here’s the thing: Laments prove that God can handle our pain. Laments prove that we don’t have to always wear a happy face when we approach God in prayer.

But besides that, Laments are surprisingly faith-building, surprisingly full of trust. The Laments in Scripture follow a specific form – and the form itself includes reminders that, though times are hard, we really do trust God. In fact, a large number finish off by visualizing how happy they’re going to be when God acts.

So – Laments seem all the more appropriate for this time we find ourselves in. So much is going wrong, it’s hard to keep track of it all. And going through the parts of a Lament during this Lenten season I hope will help me bring the troubles before God and encourage me at the same time. And I hope that sharing these thoughts will help others, too.

My plan for the book Laments for Lent is a smaller scope than Praying with the Psalmists. I’m thinking it will be a series of daily devotionals for the 40 days of Lent plus Sundays, and each day we’ll look at one of the Laments or Psalms of Confession. And each week we’ll look at a different part of a Lament and think about opening our own hearts to God.

For the blog series, I’m not going to post daily, but I would like to post weekly. I’m thinking sort of a rough draft/initial plan for what the book will be about, sketching out the themes I’ll hit with each week’s devotionals. I’m going to try to post every Sunday during Lent, and by the end I should have an idea if I’ve really got enough to say for a book. I’m also hoping I’ll get plenty of comments and feedback to direct that project.

And this introductory post has gotten longer than I intended – I was going to lead right into an Ash Wednesday post. But why don’t I leave this as an introduction and I’ll come back for Ash Wednesday, beginning with words from Psalms.

It’s Time for a Lament.

I’ve written an as-yet-unpublished book on Psalms, Praying with the Psalmists, about the different types of Psalms and how we can use them as patterns for our own prayer. It might sound odd, but one of my favorite forms is the Lament. It’s also the most common form, and Laments show that we can bring all of our troubles to God, that we don’t have to always put on a happy face when we come before God. But also, the form of a Lament reminds us that we can trust God.

And I’m not going to let the name of the current president appear in this blog, but gracious – how much havoc he has caused in the first weeks of his second time in office. I live in northern Virginia, where a large percentage of the population is federal workers, and anxiety fills the air here. My small group and I tried to make a list of things to pray about, to try to be less overwhelmed, and even that was supremely difficult and gets added to every day.

So – I tried to be more general and come up with five general things to pray about daily, so I can tick them off on my fingers. Here’s what I came up with:

1) For people who have been and are being harmed by these actions, that this harm will be quickly mitigated.

This includes federal workers being fired, and others trying to work with smaller staff.
It includes transgender people losing civil rights and access to medication.
It includes families of those killed in the plane crashes after FAA personnel were fired.
It includes people being imprisoned in concentration camps because they tried to come here for refuge.

2) For forces of good that have been stopped, that the good will quickly start up again.

This includes everyone across the world helped by USAID.
It includes everyone helped by the Department of Education.
It includes everyone helped by the Consumer Protection Board.
It includes everyone who uses Medicaid.
It includes funding for cancer research, and so many other programs and research I don’t know about.

3) For the Constitution and the rule of law to be upheld.

Yes, we’re in a Constitutional crisis. It’s clearly illegal to fire Inspectors General without giving notice to Congress. Judges have already ruled against the administration in more than one case, and they’re talking about ignoring the judges. If they get away with that, they are ignoring the Constitution and grabbing the power of a dictator. I don’t want to live in a dictatorship.

This includes prayer for our elected officials, that they will do everything in their own power to uphold the Constitution.

4) For protection from further harm.

Firing air traffic controllers and replacing people with AI? What could go wrong? Refusing to allow the CDC to put out information when Avian flu is mutating? Allowing a rogue foreigner and an agency not approved by Congress to access all our personal data with access to Treasury computers? Talking about eliminating Social Security and Medicare? Talking about attacking other countries based on whims? Building prison camps in El Salvador? There’s so much, it’s hard to know what to worry about next.  Please protect us all, Lord!

5) For evil actions to come to light.

The administration has their own propaganda department, courtesy of right-wing “news” sources. And they are practiced in casting blame – trying to blame the recent plane crashes on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, with absolutely no evidence, for example. The rogue department that’s decimating the rest of the government has been avoiding any transparency. May that not stand. May the truth come out. May what is whispered in the dark be spoken in the daylight.

So – those are what I want to pray about. Now I’m going to write a short lament to do so – but consider all the listing above to be part of the lament.

Here are the parts of a lament:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

A Lament for a Time of Chaos

Help us, Lord!
We come before you asking that you hear our prayers.
Hear our prayer;
listen to our cry.

Lord, so many people are being harmed
by this administration’s callous actions.
Folks are illegally losing their jobs;
others are losing their civil rights.
And people who believed they could better their lives in America
are being imprisoned without recourse.

And Father, I didn’t realize how much good our country did
until it got stopped.
Fill in the gaps of helping cancer research
disease prevention
mitigating poverty
Alzheimer’s research
and so much more.
Help those who rely on Medicaid,
who need student loans,
who rely on grants for funding
to get by while it’s paused.

Lord, wicked men are ignoring our laws,
they’re blatantly breaking laws specifically written to keep this country a democracy.
They’re flaunting their power
and saying, “Who can stop us?”

Lord, we know that you do see.
We believe that you do have power.
And I’m sorry that my trust
sounds so feeble right about now.
Will you indeed act?

Arise, O Lord!
Do not forget the marginalized.
Let the wicked fall into the pit they’ve dug.
Let their feet be caught in the net they have hidden.
May all their wickedness come to light.
May their power grabs be their downfall.
And please, protect your children
from further harm.
Show us how to resist.
Cut through the chaos and guide us
what to do to help preserve our republic.

Lord God, I do believe that the arc of the universe
bends toward justice.
Please speed up that bending!
Let this setback to justice, mercy, and truth be short.

And when it all comes crashing down for these wicked people,
our hearts will be light
and there will be rejoicing in the streets.

May that day come soon, Lord God!

***

Okay, that’s what I came up with on the spot. I will be praying my five prayer requests daily for the forseeable future. May the Lord have mercy on us.

Wisdom Psalms and Wicked Rulers

Psalm 58:1-2 —
Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge people with equity?
No, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth.

It seemed appropriate that last week, as our president-elect was threatening war against Greenland, Canada, and Panama, that I was having my quiet times in Psalm 58. [I have a somewhat random method of choosing where in Scripture to focus my quiet times. It has to do with my schedule of reviewing what I’ve memorized. Psalm 58 was up next.]

What I thought about was that the world has had unjust rulers as long as we have had rulers. And God’s people have brought that before God in prayer just as long.

As it happens, shortly before the election, I was having my quiet times in Malachi 3, which definitely made me think of one candidate:

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Wisdom Psalms are all about how it’s good for you to follow God – but they also grapple (notably in Psalm 73, but other places as well) with how sometimes the wicked prosper. And they absolutely, definitely pray that the wicked will experience their own downfall and the consequences of their unjust actions. It is right and good to pray against those who do the things above. And I firmly believe that is ultimately good for our nation to be against injustice, evil, and oppression.

In this post, rather than write my own psalm, I’m going to use words directly from Scripture to pray for our new administration.

Before I begin, let me say that I am completely against political violence. But I am absolutely for the metaphorical lions having their fangs torn out. (See the difference?) Lest anyone misunderstand, again, let me say that I am taking these words directly from Scripture.

Let me also say that when I see “poor and needy,” I’m thinking of transgender folks whose rights may get stripped away, and of people currently eligible for Medicaid and Social Security recipients who may lose benefits. To anyone marginalized whose situation may be made worse.  To the extent that doesn’t happen – well, these prayers are against any who oppress the poor and needy, who make life harder for them.

Let’s begin with Psalm 58:6-7–

Break the teeth in their mouths, O God;
Lord, tear out the fangs of those lions!
Let them vanish like water that flows away;
when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.

And then verses from Psalm 10 come to mind:

In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”
His mouth is full of lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue….
He says to himself, “God will never notice;
he covers his face and never sees.”

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
But you, O God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.

From Psalm 7:14-16–
Whoever is pregnant with evil
conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit they have made.
The trouble they cause recoils on them;
their violence comes down on their own heads.

And let’s dip into Proverbs, for Proverbs 21:13:

Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor
will also cry out and not be answered.

Proverbs 17:23 —
The wicked accept bribes in secret
to pervert the course of justice.

Proverbs 29: 4, 7 —
By justice a king gives a country stability,
but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.

The righteous care about justice for the poor,
but the wicked have no such concern.

Psalm 12 seems very timely:
Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore;
those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.
Everyone lies to their neighbor;
they flatter with their lips
and harbor deception in their hearts.

May the Lord silence all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue –
those who say,
“By our tongues we will prevail;
our own lips will defend us – who is lord over us?”

“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the Lord.
“I will protect them from those who malign them.”
And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.

You, Lord, will keep the needy safe
and will protect us forever from the wicked,
who freely strut about
when what is vile is honored by the human race.

Psalm 28:3-4–
Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back on them what they deserve.

From Psalm 37–
Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away….

A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found….

The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at the;
but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.
The wicked draw the sword
and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose ways are upright.
But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken….

I have seen a wicked and ruthless man
flourishing like a luxuriant native tree,
but he soon passed away and was no more;
though I looked for him, he could not be found.

Psalm 52:1-7–
Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
You who practice deceit,
your tongue plots destruction;
it is like a sharpened razor.
You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
You love every harmful word,
you deceitful tongue!

Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
The righteous will see and fear;
they will laugh at you, saying,
“Here now is the man
who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
and grew strong by destroying others!”

Psalm 64:2-8–
Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from the plots of evildoers.
They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.
They shoot from ambush at the innocent;
they shoot suddenly, without fear.
They encourage each other in evil plans,
they talk about hiding their snares;
they say, “Who will see it?”
They plot injustice and say,
“We have devised a perfect plan!”
Surely the human mind and heart are cunning.

But God will shoot them with his arrows;
they will suddenly be struck down.
He will turn their own tongues against them
and bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.

And of course Psalm 109:7-19–
When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and may his prayers condemn him.
May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership….
May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children….

For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy and the brokenhearted.
He loved to pronounce a curse —
may it come back on him.
He found no pleasure in blessing —
may it be far from him.
He wore cursing as his garment;
it entered into his body like water,
into his bones like oil.
May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,
like a belt tied forever around him.

Psalm 140:8-13–
Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord;
do not let their plans succeed.
Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
May burning coals fall on them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, never to rise.
May slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down the violent.
I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.
Surely the righteous will praise your name,
and the upright will live in your presence.

And finally, Psalm 146:

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is the Lord their God.

He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them —
he remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the Lord.

May it be so, Lord. Amen and amen.

Christmas Letter 2024

Happy New Year, my friends, and Happy 8th Day of Christmas! (And 8th day of Hanukkah and 7th day of Kwanzaa!)

No matter how slow I am at actually posting, I love using the holiday time to look back over my year and the joys it held. And do know that it comes with warm wishes for all of you who have touched my life.

The big highlight of 2024 was my 60th birthday trip back to Germany in June! I hadn’t been back since I lived there from 1996 to 2006. Going now on my own, I was able to remember the many things that make my heart happy in Germany, things like:

Visiting Castles:

Hiking amazing forest trails:

Visiting my namesake village:

An incredible Bach choral cantata concert on my birthday in the very church where Bach served:

And of course a bonus was time with Wonderful Kate (former library co-worker in Virginia):

And Delightful Jeanine (former library co-worker in Germany):

The trip was all I hoped for, and if you want to hear more, I blogged about it extensively.

Other trips in 2024 included a quick trip to Ohio with my gaming group (which I’ve attended for TEN years now!) to see the total solar eclipse:

A trip to San Diego for ALA Annual Conference celebrating the Morris Award winners I helped select:

And following up by visiting my sister and then seeing other West Coast siblings – including meeting my new nephew Evan at only 4.5 months old!

In August, I did a weekend retreat in North Carolina with Lorna Byrne, who has been able to see and talk with angels all her life. Her message is incredibly encouraging!

I did a reading retreat in October in West Virginia:

And then finished off my traveling for the year spending a wonderful afternoon in Williamsburg with both my kids – who had come from Oregon to Virginia for their dad’s 60th birthday. You know it made my heart happy to see them!

So those are the exciting travel adventures. But my regular life is busy and happy.

I’m enjoying Floris United Methodist Church more with each year that goes by. I’m co-leading a ladies’ virtual small group, and this Fall we went through a book on Joy. Sharing Joys with each other pulled us closer and it’s been so good to rejoice with each other and pray with each other. I’m also still singing in the choir. The weekly rehearsals help pull me out of my to-do lists each week to focus on music, and singing in the Christmas cantata this year again made my Christmas season special. With orchestra, handbells, and children’s choir, this year’s performances made my heart so full.

And of course I’m all about books! I still love my job selecting children’s books for Fairfax County Public Library, and I’ve taken to calling myself a Book Award Committee Junkie. I did finish up serving on the Morris Award committee at the start of 2024. But I’m still the 0 to 5 Reading Group Facilitator for Capitol Choices – a local group of mostly librarians that meets monthly to discuss and select 100 best books of the year for children and teens. I’m still a Cybils Category Chair for the YA Speculative Fiction category and served as a first-round judge. We announced our Finalists today! On top of that, I serve on the Mathical Book Prize committee – and agreed to next year rotate in as co-chair.

With all that, yes, I’m still posting Sonderbooks. In fact, 2025 will be my 25th year! So I plan over the year to revisit my Stand-outs from all previous years, calling it Sonderbooks 25. This past year, I got a bee in my bonnet to try to catch up posting reviews, and by posting almost daily was able to cut down the number of reviews written and waiting to be posted from 270 to 100. Of course, it would be easier if I would stop writing new ones! Can I catch up in 2025? I will try….

I do feel like with all that posting reviews, I dropped the ball on seeking a publisher for my book Praying with the Psalmists. Though at the same time, my website hits increased to over 300,000 monthly, so maybe that will help.  The idea of the book is about writing prayers using Psalms as a pattern, which I try to still put into practice – so you can follow occasional posts about it here on Sonderjourneys. I hope to get working again to find a publisher in 2025 or evaluate if I should self-publish.

And with all of that, I still get lots of joy from living in a beautiful place. You’re used to seeing pictures of the great blue heron (or herons) who haunt my lake:

Lately, there’s been a hawk hanging around, too.

But I was awfully surprised when an owl was perched over my path a couple weeks ago.

Though even that was nothing to my surprise one day in March, when I was innocently teleworking, and a bald eagle perched on the tree outside my window!

So yes, life is always exciting, and full of big and small joys. My prayer is that we’ll all keep noticing them, no matter what’s in store for us in 2025.

Happy New Year!

My Epic Germany Trip – Day 11 – Hofheim with my Friend

I’ve been blogging about my 60th Birthday Trip to Germany last June, and I’ve finally reached the last day, Friday, June 21.

I had another wonderful breakfast at Waldhotel Heller, packed up my little Fiat 500, and headed north on the 63 Autobahn – the same one we drove so many times going to the airport, that wasn’t even connected up to the other Autobahn when we first moved there. (So a new, straight, flat Autobahn with very little traffic began near our house. I got used to driving at high speeds on that road. When it was connected up, it was a little sad to lose that, but it was also quicker to drive to Ramstein.)

My flight didn’t leave until 5 pm, so I went to Hofheim, right near the airport, where my friend Jeanine lives. Back in 1998 or so, Jeanine and I were both married to members of the USAFE Band, and we hit it off when she and her husband moved there. And then she got a job at the base library where I was already working, each of us sharing a job, so working 20 hours each. And we got to know each other better. Jeanine ended up marrying a German and staying in Germany – I always envied her a bit for that. But it was delightful to see her!

First we had lunch there in the Zentrum of Hofheim.

I’d actually gone all that time without eating Schnitzel. This one came with a green sauce that was delicious.

Jeanine’s apartment overlooks Hofheim.

And then Jeanine took me on a lovely walking tour of the Altstadt.

The old city wall of Hofheim is still standing in spots.

Since it’s a fortification and over 100 years old – built in 1352 – I decided to count it as Castle #175.

I still love those onion dome churches so common in this area.

And then it was off to the airport and flying back to America.

It turned out that my 10-day trip was just about perfect. I’d been able to remind myself of the many things about Germany that make my heart happy, see friends, make new memories, and I was coming home refreshed.