{"id":14305,"date":"2026-03-08T23:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14305"},"modified":"2026-03-08T23:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:21:12","slug":"laments-for-lent-week-3-a-lament-for-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14305","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Week 3 – A Lament for War"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It was warm today – at last – so I’m starting this post with a picture of last year’s cherry blossoms.<\/p>\n

In my Laments for Lent series<\/a>, my plan is to each week talk about a different part of the Lament form, then write an example lament. Unfortunately, this year, I’m easily finding current events to write laments about. In fact, I mentioned that to my (adult) kid who is temporarily staying with me, and they said that at this rate, I can go on to write Jeremiads for June! (Hey, it made me laugh.)<\/p>\n

The form of a Lament is:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Address to God<\/li>\n
  2. Complaint<\/li>\n
  3. Confession of Trust<\/li>\n
  4. Entreaty<\/li>\n
  5. Sureness of Help<\/li>\n
  6. Subsequent Praise<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Confession of Trust comes after we’ve expressed ourselves, when we step back and remind ourselves that there’s a reason we’re coming to God with this mess, because we do trust God. It’s often short and sweet, but a reminder that we do believe God sees.<\/p>\n

    Here are a couple of examples:<\/p>\n

    Psalm 54:4–<\/p>\n

    Surely God is my help;
    \nthe Lord is the one who sustains me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Psalm 86:15–<\/p>\n

    But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
    \nslow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This week, I’m going to write a Lament for War:<\/p>\n

    O God, why do the nations rage,
    \nand the peoples plot against each other?
    \nShepherd of the world, hear us
    \nas we cry out to you!<\/p>\n

    O Sovereign over all of us,
    \nthe leaders of our own country
    \nhave chosen violence in place of peace.
    \nWhen negotiations were having an effect
    \nthey chose to attack.
    \nA ship that had gone to participate in a naval exercise in good faith
    \nwas blown out of the water,
    \nwith no one staying to rescue the survivors,
    \ndespite the Geneva Convention.
    \nA girls’ school was “accidentally” targeted –
    \nwas AI involved? –
    \nand over a hundred children killed.
    \nDesalination plants have been targeted,
    \ndestroying clean water resources for millions of people.
    \nThe leaders of our country have boasted
    \nabout raining down death and destruction.
    \nOnce upon a time,
    \nI thought we were the good guys.
    \nI’m standing horrified
    \nat the thought of all the innocent lives lost
    \nbecause of the actions of people
    \nwearing the flag of my country.
    \nAs well as the repercussions that are sure to hit
    \nin the form of terrorism,
    \nhigh prices,
    \nand other impacts I don’t even want to imagine.
    \nI’m avoiding war news
    \nbecause it turns my stomach.
    \nHow privileged am I that I can do that?
    \nI don’t even know how to pray,
    \nso let me at least acknowledge this situation is a horror and a travesty
    \nand a reviving of violence
    \nwhere there could have been peace.<\/p>\n

    Almighty God, you are the Prince of Peace
    \nand you bless the peacemakers.
    \nYou see the sparrow fall
    \nand you know the name of each injured child.<\/p>\n

    Lord God, be a shelter for everyone in danger.
    \nLet peacemakers rise up,
    \nand let men of violence be thwarted.
    \nLet the arrogant be humbled,
    \nand let this horrible example
    \nresult in the world working together
    \nto heal and restore.<\/p>\n

    Somehow, somewhere, sometime,
    \nlet there be peace on earth.<\/p>\n

    And we do believe the day will come
    \nwhen the lion will lie down with the lamb,
    \nand the child will put their hand into a viper’s nest,
    \nand they will neither harm nor destroy
    \non all your holy mountain.<\/p>\n

    And great will be our rejoicing
    \nwith every example of peace overcoming evil.<\/p>\n

    Even so, come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It was warm today – at last – so I’m starting this post with a picture of last year’s cherry blossoms. In my Laments for Lent series, my plan is to each week talk about a different part of the Lament form, then write an example lament. Unfortunately, this year, I’m easily finding current events […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,62,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-laments-for-lent","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305","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=14305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14307,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305\/revisions\/14307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}