{"id":13613,"date":"2024-10-20T22:39:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T02:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=13613"},"modified":"2025-08-15T23:28:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T03:28:48","slug":"a-lament-for-the-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=13613","title":{"rendered":"A Lament for the Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

My small group is going through a wonderful book on Joy, Champagne for the Soul<\/a><\/em>, by Mike Mason. I love the book, I love focusing on Joy, and I love the discussions we’re having in our group.<\/p>\n

However, something I read yesterday hit me wrong. He was talking about Joy as a sacrifice – sacrificing whatever it is that gets in the way of Joy, whether anger or pride or complaining.<\/p>\n

The psalmist knew how to shake free of trouble with a psalm. That’s what the psalms are – sacrifices of joy. David knew God’s pleasure is not in dead animals or rituals but in what happens in the human heart. If the heart doesn’t engage joyfully in worship, or at least emerge from worship rejoicing, then the sacrifice is incomplete. The ultimate sacrifice we can offer the Lord is the sacrifice of joy.<\/p>\n

Many of the psalms begin in joy, and those that don’t start on a high note usually end that way. As the psalmist enters the presence of God, no matter how burdened he may be, there’s a movement from negative to positive. The heart lifts as all that weighs it down is sacrificed….<\/p>\n

For the person committed to joy, so many roads are no longer open – scorn, impatience, complaining, criticism. When all such easy and habitual options are cut off, a wonderful clarification takes place in th spirit. The dross settles out, leaving room only for the gold of joy.<\/p>\n

Joy is the ultimate sacrifice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why did those lines hit me the wrong way?<\/p>\n

Well, first let me say that we’ve all known people who kill the joy of everyone around them with their complaining. I’m not saying that negative emotions are good things. I also agree that the Psalms move from negative to positive. <\/p>\n

But I don’t like the term “sacrifice” used about those negative emotions. It’s not like you cut them off and you’re not allowed to feel them. It’s not a matter of squelching them and refusing to feel them. The psalmists literally say “I pour out my complaint”! They go into great detail about their problems – that’s part of the process.<\/p>\n

So maybe that can be thought of as sacrifice if you make an effort to pour out the complaints to God instead of the people around you. But you don’t give up feeling bad, because you’re still human.<\/p>\n

Now, with all that in mind, something that’s hurting my Joy these days is worrying about the election. So why don’t I model the Lament process by writing a Lament for the Election? Now, I already did one in my personal journal, and I think for public consumption, I won’t write out ALL my worries. But a Lament really does help you move from negative to positive – not because of “sacrificing” the negative emotions, but because of acknowledging them and bringing them to God.<\/p>\n

Here are the parts of a Lament:
\nAddress to God
\nComplaint
\nConfession of Trust
\nEntreaty
\nSureness of Help
\nSubsequent Praise<\/p>\n

So, here’s a sample Lament for the Election:<\/p>\n

Lord, I come before you
\nto bring you my worries and fears.
\nHear my prayer,
\nlisten to my voice.<\/p>\n

Father, I’m afraid of what could happen,
\nI’m worried about the future.
\nEspecially if the guy should win who talks about
\ntaking rights from transgender people like my daughter
\nand demonizing the vulnerable among us
\nand taking away citizenship from people who thought they had it
\nand deporting people who get our food to market
\nand depriving women of rights over their own bodies
\nand trying to stop people from reading books they don’t agree with
\nand threatening to imprison librarians like me who make those books available
\nand so much more.<\/p>\n

And if he doesn’t win,
\nI’m worried about unrest and violence
\nand accusations of cheating
\nand disregard for the law.
\nI’m worried about people in power
\nwho will try to further those outcomes.<\/p>\n

But Lord, I do trust you.
\nBad things happen,
\nbut you always bring good out of it,
\nat the very least rousing people to stand up for what’s right.<\/p>\n

You’ve given us free will,
\nbut you also direct our steps.
\nI see so many people standing up for the good,
\nfor the rights of the poor and oppressed,
\nfor joy and hope.<\/p>\n

Rise up, O Lord!
\nSend your guidance to people throughout this country.
\nHelp people to listen to your voice,
\nlisten to angels nudging them
\neven listen to their own better nature.<\/p>\n

Let any attempts to cheat
\ncome to light and be thwarted.
\nLet any violence
\nbe stopped before it can erupt.<\/p>\n

I do believe that your Spirit guides us, Lord.
\nI do believe that you are moving.<\/p>\n

I look forward to the day after the election
\nwhen we can rejoice
\nbecause Joy and Hope have triumphed,
\nbecause we’ve elected a president
\nwho will work to do right by the people of America.
\nAnd we will be glad!<\/p>\n

I didn’t put names in this Lament. So honestly, if you really feel differently from me about who would try to do evil and who would work to do good, you can pray that. May we listen to God’s guidance as we vote.<\/p>\n

And people tell me I shouldn’t let my hopes get too high. We’ve all been burned before. But part of the Lament form is visualizing how filled with joy you’ll be when God answers your prayer – and I’d rather go there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My small group is going through a wonderful book on Joy, Champagne for the Soul, by Mike Mason. I love the book, I love focusing on Joy, and I love the discussions we’re having in our group. However, something I read yesterday hit me wrong. He was talking about Joy as a sacrifice – sacrificing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613","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=13613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13617,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions\/13617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}