Pour It Out Like Water

Not every grief has a funeral. Sometimes grief is a job that ends, a friendship that fades, a dream that never comes together, a season that closes. We save the word grief for death, then wonder why these other losses still ache. They ache because they are losses.

That is why Lamentations matters. Lamentations is about understanding grief. It is about pure sadness. Jerusalem had lost homes, livelihoods, and families. They mourned those who had died, and also what had been, and what would never be. Their sorrow was real. Ours is too.

Look at what the verse tells us to do. It does not tell us to hold our grief in, and it does not tell us to get it together first. It tells us to pour it out. Pouring leaves nothing behind. You tip everything out before God: the sadness, the confusion, the questions, even the parts you would rather keep hidden. In the watches of the night, you can say it all exactly as it is.

We all have known that kind of sadness. When my grandmother moved to Michigan for assisted living, we knew it would be very rare for us to see her. It was all very sad, and there was nothing I could fix. All I could do was pour it out to God, sadness and all, and trust that He heard me.

So name your loss, whatever it is, and pour it out to Him. Be honest; He has big shoulders. Pour out your heart like water, all of it, and let Him begin to heal what grief has broken. God is good.