Daily Nourishment for October 9, 2024: The Act of Lament with Guidance from Mary McCampbell
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 60 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15-20 minutes
Pause.
Watch the video for “Hurt” by Johnny Cash.
Prompt.
In The Prophetic Imagination, theologian Walter Brueggemann argues that the act of lament, crying out to God and humanity with an open acknowledgement of grief and pain, is a subversive act. We often feel pressured to pretend that the status quo, the “way things are” is okay.
When reading about abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s unimaginably dehumanizing experience of enslavement, we see the way lament can lead to hope and reality in the midst of the most extreme, unreal circumstances. He tells us that the lament-filled spirituals of his fellow enslaved brothers and sisters were “tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.”
A lament can speak reality to our often-airbrushed surroundings. Brueggemann references the Old Testament prophets crying out in the wilderness, speaking truth to power when those in earthly charge–gorged on power and mammon– exhibited a kind of “royal numbness” when faced with the reality of suffering around them. Brueggemann claims that the “language of grief,” the practice of lament and mourning, “is the ultimate form of criticism.”
Practice.
Write about the experience of hearing a song of lament that has become your heart’s song. Or take some time to write a lament of your own.
Want More?
Read Jeremiah 30 for a powerful example of the prophetic language of grief.
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Workshops, Gatherings, & Resources
—New Resource: Parenting with Art® Lectio Divina Cards Information about ordering these cards can be found in my Books + Spiritual Direction + Retreats & Gatherings email newsletter that went out last night. To stay in the loop on all of my work, writing, book recs, and more, subscribe to that weekly newsletter at charlottedonlon.com/subscribe.
—The October Co-Writing is ready. All SDW Members get free co-writing through November. If you aren’t a member and would like to join us, please contact me at charlotte@charlottedonlon.com and I’ll hook you up.
—The Great Belonging Project is live here and The Great Belonging Project October Refresh will take place Oct 1-Oct 31.
—October 26— Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
The Pauses, Prompts, and Practices for this week are from Mary McCampbell and were originally shared before Daily Nourishment offerings were posted online.
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