{"id":12914,"date":"2020-03-24T20:26:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T00:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12914"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:41:48","slug":"do-try-this-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12914","title":{"rendered":"Do Try This At Home!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I got some wonderful responses to yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lament for Covid-19<\/a>. People said it touched them.<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t what I was going for. What I wanted was for people to say: I can do that!<\/p>\n

I want to motivate people to try this way of praying themselves. I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to post a much shorter example.<\/p>\n

But before I do, I want to point out something that blessed me in writing yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lament. I already knew that what I love about the form of the lament is that Thanksgiving is built in. It automatically includes what Christians are taught in Philippians 4:6-7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to present your requests before God with thanksgiving<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prepared for how powerfully the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Vow to Praise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would hit me. You make promises of what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to do when God comes through and answers your prayer. I started imagining all the people I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to hug when this Covid-19 crisis is over\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and that was more powerful to me than anything else I thought about.<\/p>\n

Okay, now let me write a short<\/em> lament. Here again are the parts:<\/p>\n

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

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also going to use parallelism, like the Psalms do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which just means saying the same thing in a different way on the next line.<\/p>\n

A Shorter Lament for the Sick<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hear my voice, Lord,
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the only one who can help.<\/p>\n

Thousands are sick across our country,
\nsuffering, alone, scared.
\nOur hospitals are filling,
\nand their workers are risking their lives.
\nOthers at home are wondering
\nat what point do they need to get help?<\/p>\n

We trust you, Lord.
\nWe know you see each one of us.
\nYou are with us
\nand we are never alone.
\nYou are the Great Physician,
\nand you have the power to heal.
\nYou give wisdom to the healers
\nand comfort to the sick.<\/p>\n

Lord, have mercy.
\nGrant your help and healing.
\nGive wisdom to everyone seeking a cure,
\nstamina to everyone helping the sick,
\ncomfort to everyone ravaged by illness,
\nand protection to everyone still healthy.<\/p>\n

We will get through this.
\nAs a community,
\nas a country,
\nand all humanity together.
\nWe will once again create vaccines and treatments.
\nWe will conquer this illness
\nlong before it conquers us.
\nAnd that is because of the
\nwisdom and grace you have granted
\nto humankind.<\/p>\n

Lord, when the church meets again,
\nwe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to do lots of touching.
\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll share communion
\nand envelop each other in hugs.<\/p>\n

When the library reopens,
\nwe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to sing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nand touch our eyes and ears and mouth and nose
\nwith great excitement.
\nAnd then again, faster!<\/p>\n

Okay, your turn! Do you have something that needs prayer? Try a Lament. God can take your complaints, and it will do your heart good to plan how you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to celebrate when He answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got some wonderful responses to yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lament for Covid-19. People said it touched them. But that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t what I was going for. What I wanted was for people to say: I can do that! I want to motivate people to try this way of praying themselves. I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,65,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-laments","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12914","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=12914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12917,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12914\/revisions\/12917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}