{"id":12911,"date":"2020-03-23T22:42:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T02:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12911"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:42:14","slug":"a-lament-for-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12911","title":{"rendered":"A Lament for Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been thinking for a long time about praying like the Psalmists<\/a>, using the forms of Hebrew poetry to pray. <\/p>\n

The Lament<\/a> is the most common form in the Psalms, and it’s a wonderful form because you fully complain, but the form brings you back around to remembering that God’s going to take care of this. You even plan how you will rejoice when you get through it. So — I’m going to do a practice Lament about the coronavirus. <\/p>\n

This isn’t polished, it’s not pretty. But I want it to be something anyone can do.<\/p>\n

I wrote this with two things in mind: I tried to use parallelism, repeating myself. And I tried to use the form of a Lament: <\/p>\n

1) Address to God
\n2) Complaint
\n3) Confession of Trust
\n4) Petition
\n5) Words of Assurance
\n6) Vow to Praise<\/p>\n

So that’s enough. I’ll offer below my lament I wrote for this time.<\/p>\n

This is my offering — but I offer it in hopes that you’ll see that you don’t have to be good at this to do it! I hope that you’ll try writing your own Lament and voice your complaint — but remind yourself that you really do believe that God will pull you through.<\/p>\n

A Lament for Covid-19<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord, are you there?
\nHave you seen the world going crazy?<\/p>\n

Your people are falling ill,
\nyoung and old are suffering.
\nThis virus is spreading the globe,
\npeople in every country are affected.<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid to touch each other.
\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve banned hugs and handshakes.
\nWe stay at home and keep our distance.
\nEven people I pass on the outdoor path draw back.<\/p>\n

Businesses are closing;
\nhairdressers are afraid.
\nLibrarians are too scared to touch books,
\nand restaurants have become take-out only.<\/p>\n

The economy is crashing.
\nFriends are getting laid off.
\nSmall businesses are failing,
\nand classes are switching to online learning.<\/p>\n

The scariest part is exponential growth.
\nOur country went from hundreds
\nto thousands of cases
\nin less than a week.<\/p>\n

Can our hospitals tend
\nthose who need it?
\nWill we run out of facemasks?
\nWill we have enough ventilators?<\/p>\n

Lord, the future is unknown
\nand everything we thought was normal has changed.<\/p>\n

I do trust you, Lord.
\nYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the world through every disaster.
\nThis seems so big,
\nbut you are always bigger.<\/p>\n

Can you save mankind from the consequences of our mistakes?
\nYou can.
\nWill you have mercy on us?
\nYou will.<\/p>\n

You see the individual.
\nYou notice when a sparrow falls.
\nYou see the hourly worker laid off,
\nAnd you have compassion for the owner who lost their business.<\/p>\n

I wish you were not quite so good
\nat redeeming bad things,
\nfor then you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t
\nlet bad things happen.<\/p>\n

As it is, we ask for redemption.
\nWe ask for bursts of goodness and grace.
\nWe ask for ingenuity for doctors and scientists,
\nfinding treatment, finding cures,
\ndeveloping an effective vaccine.<\/p>\n

We ask for compassion
\nin the hearts of caregivers,
\nthat those suffering may know
\ntheir pain is seen.<\/p>\n

We ask for protection
\nfor those serving on the frontlines,
\nthat the virus will not enter their bodies,
\nthat they will not succumb,
\nthat they will fight on.<\/p>\n

We ask for creativity
\nin the hearts and minds of artists,
\nthat they will lift us above these times,
\ndraw us out from fear.<\/p>\n

We ask for community
\neven as we distance ourselves.
\nWe ask for creative ways
\nto reach out and tell people we care.<\/p>\n

We ask that we will never forget
\nhow richly blessed we are
\nto have each other,
\nand what an amazing gift
\nis the presence of another human being.<\/p>\n

Lord, have mercy on this world You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve created!
\nLook with compassion on our suffering!
\nGive humanity the wisdom and resilience
\nTo stop this virus and cut short the harm.<\/p>\n

Lord, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said when we walk through the fire,
\nyou will be with us.
\nWe will not be burned,
\nthe flames will not set us ablaze.<\/p>\n

When we walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
\nYou are with us.
\nYou comfort us
\nwith your rod and your staff, the signs of your presence.<\/p>\n

We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming,
\nbut you do.
\nJesus took on our infirmities
\nand carried our diseases,
\nand he never stopped
\ncaring for the ills of the world.<\/p>\n

Lord, we will sing for joy
\nwhen we meet back together again.
\nOur hugs will be
\nstrong and invigorating.<\/p>\n

We will laugh with joy
\nwhen we see friends and family
\nin person again,
\nwhen we feel our loved ones in the flesh.<\/p>\n

Thank you for the precious gift of community,
\nand thank you that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re learning
\nLove is stronger than any virus
\nAnd community transcends physical distance.<\/p>\n

Amen, Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking for a long time about praying like the Psalmists, using the forms of Hebrew poetry to pray. The Lament is the most common form in the Psalms, and it’s a wonderful form because you fully complain, but the form brings you back around to remembering that God’s going to take care of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,65,51,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-laments","category-prayer","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12913,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12911\/revisions\/12913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}