Christians sometimes fail to mourn evil, particularly when we’ve not felt its impact personally. The Bible never does.
From start to finish, and especially in the Psalms, the Bible names and mourns all that is bent and broken in our world, from hidden thoughts of the human heart to the affairs of nations.
“How long, O Lord?”
“My God, why have you forsaken me?”
“Creation groans…and we groan inwardly…”
“Jesus wept.”
If we do not see evil, we do not see the world as it is. And if we do not mourn with those who mourn, we fail to love them.
[pullquote]If we do not see evil, we do not see the world as it is. And if we do not mourn with those who mourn, we fail to love them.[/pullquote]Yes, all around us are so many blessings, too. This is the beauty God intended from the start, when He first spoke over all creation, “It is very good.” But alongside these gifts are sorrows and wrongs beyond number.
These evils all begin in the human heart. Greed. Self-centeredness. Arrogance and superiority. Lust. Contempt.
But things that live long in the heart never stay there. They always grow upward and out, rising into actions. Exploitation. Adultery. Racism. Abuse. Murder.
Evil rarely stops there. The sins of individuals eventually take shape in the communities people form, from small organizations to entire societies. Systems marked by corruption. Oppressive governments. Cultures that give advantage to some and repress others.
One way this mushroom cloud of sin is expressed is racism, the mistreatment and diminishing of others because of their race or ethnicity. All throughout history, racism has allowed otherwise decent people to feel okay about trampling the humanity of their neighbors. It defined Jews’ view of Gentiles in Jesus’ day. It infected the relationship of Ladinos and Mayans in Guatemala and of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. It played a driving role in Europeans’ enslavement of Africans beginning in the 1500’s, and in slavery in North America before, during and long after the founding of the United States. Even after slavery was brought to an end at the cost of more than 600,000 American lives, the tentacles of racism spread throughout the land in hearts and laws and institutions. Both its presence and its consequences echo to this day, and we see and feel its vile effects afresh in the killing of George Floyd.
Certainly, racism is but one of evil’s many forms. But whenever and wherever we observe it, we must treat racism for what it is: an abominable sin that savages the beauty God intended in the marvelous variety of humankind. [pullquote]Racism is an abominable sin that savages the beauty God intended in the marvelous variety of humankind.[/pullquote]
Our first action as we confront this evil, or any evil, in our world is to name it and mourn it – to lament. We do this before God first, laying before Him all that we feel, just as the Psalms. And, when possible, we lament together – mourning with those who mourn.
Lament is the first action we must teach our children to ready them to confront evil, to prepare them for the world as it is. To teach our children to lament, we must learn to lament ourselves.
To read: Psalm 55:1-10 & 22-23
To explain: Share with your children how God created all things good and beautiful, and yet sin has twisted all of creation. Explain how God calls His people to lament this brokenness and pain, including “mourning with those who mourn.”
To discuss: Where do you see pain and evil in our world? What do you think it means to lament these things?
To do: Join together in a prayer to lament the pain and brokenness of our world, including the death of George Floyd.
For further exploration: “Recovering Lament” – Workshop from CAFO2019; “Raising Black Children (in a Multi-Racial Family)” – Workshop from CAFO2019