Lamenting is Necessary for Preservation

BY DR. FROSWA BOOKER DREW

That week was unprecedented. If you weren’t directly impacted by the lack of electricity in your homes, you probably had relatives and friends over. If that wasn’t your scenario, you witnessed or heard stories of despair and hopelessness through the consistent coverage in the news and social media.

It was a lot to experience and process. My irritation goes beyond the experience. I am frustrated to see how so many of us went back to work Monday morning as if nothing happened and we continue to stay on the hamster wheel of non-stop motion—never taking the time to pause or even stop.

There were limited conversations or check-ins, just work as usual because we have fallen into the trap that profit and productivity rule over people.

In addition to last week’s debacle, over 500,000 people have died from COVID or COVID related complications.

So many family members and friends have experienced loss. The institutional knowledge as well as the potential that we will never realize and know is now gone.

And yet, we continue to move on without taking the time to stop and realize the devastation of this unseen enemy that is taking a toll on life as we know it.

Our lives have radically changed. For many of us, we have been in our homes since March 2020 with limited human contact that is usually restricted to immediate family.

Hugs and opportunities to experience the presence of others is almost non-existent except for Zoom calls and Grocery store runs. Dallas Morning News (February 4, 2021) headlines read, “With 1 of every 5 high schoolers not attending classes with regularity, Dallas ISD launches reconnection effort.”

As much as we tell ourselves that our children are resilient, obviously, they are not adjusting well, either. We keep running, moving faster as if it will suddenly go away and things will go back to normal.

In our quest, to keep up this busyness and desire to move forward, we are neglecting to pause, stop, and lament.

It’s interesting that in grammar, the comma represents a pause, and the period is designed to stop before moving to another thought.

Why is it that we understand that in language but have failed to see the correlation in our lives? Right now, we need to really sit back, reflect, and listen.

God is speaking and we are missing it big time by covering it up with more stuff to do that has yet to alleviate our pain and suffering. The book of Lamentations is credited to Jeremiah.

It is a Biblical book of poems that illustrate the pain of a people whose city had been destroyed and who had lost many loved ones.

It is a book that ponders on the suffering of man caused by the decisions and actions of men. The city of Babylon had been invaded and destroyed.

There was a need for food and people were desperate. Lamentations 3:17-26 states, “Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. 20 I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. 21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. 26 So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.”

Maybe it is time for us to pause, stop, cry, reflect and wait quietly to hear from God. Our very lives depend upon it.

Dr. Froswa Booker-Drew is the CEO of Soulstice Consultancy and the founder of the R2 Foundation. She is the author of four books and the host of the Tapestry Podcast.