We feel our weakness so deeply, don’t we? We need someone strong enough to bear the weight of it all. So, let’s pause in the messy in- between to welcome the grace of biblical lament into our lives. As we spend time reflecting on passages of lament in the Bible, we will push our hearts towards hope in the only One strong enough to bear the weight of such immense pain.

And hope sounds pretty good when life shatters, doesn’t it?

You are the God of comfort. You look with compassion on my ruins.My life feels shattered (hopeless, even?)

But you are a God who takes deserts and wastelands and turns them into gardens like Eden. What a promise. 

So here I am—in the brokenness of my life, my story, my marriage, my family—asking you to take all of these shards and splintered pieces and make something beautiful. Use these ashes for your glory and my good. 

Dear Church, let’s align ourselves with the work of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, and PURSUE. Let’s stay near on the heels of the hurting in our midst. Abandoned and divorced women naturally find themselves on the edges & fringes. Let’s bring them in and go about the work of Jesus, offering rest, care, provision, safety—FAITHFUL LOVE!

I AM UNLOVED.

Over and over it plays, like a skipping record player. I mean, to be fair, I do have reason to believe those words. They were spoken over me by the one who vowed to love me forever. It makes sense that I would feel this way because it’s true.

Or at least partly. Maybe I should say, ONLY partly?

These dark thoughts threaten to take over my mind, like weeds in a garden. That thought—that I AM UNLOVED thought—threatens to cast itself near and far, all the way to Jesus. 

Your commitment to and participation in the gathered Body of Christ is one of the main avenues of restoration and antidotes to hopelessness in the lives of the afflicted and abandoned wives in your midst.

Everything good and beautiful in my life crashed into a thousand pieces. I was brought very low. So low in fact, I lost all hope. Have you been there? I have a feeling maybe you have…

The idea of the Lord making wastelands into gardens really stuck out to me. But my life was pretty lovely at the time. I was in a season of ease and abundance. I tucked those words away in my heart but they didn’t impact me very deeply. 

Fast forward a few years and I was in a very different place. My life had completely fallen apart. I lost my marriage, my home, my church, my financial security. All of it was a big pile of ash. I was genuinely sitting in a wasteland, surrounded by all the broken pieces of my easy and beautiful life. 

If you told 5-year-old me about all the loss she would face, would she still grow up with stars in her eyes & hope in her heart?

Every December, I feel my heart and body brace themselves for another blow. As twinkly lights sparkle in windows and the collective mood gets merrier, a sense of dread typically settles over my heart. I struggle to pull the Christmas decorations out of storage with my girls, and tears often fall.

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2,555 DAYS.

Seven whole years.

Seven years since the worst day of my life.

Friday, December 1st, will mark the 7th anniversary of my marriage shattering. I have a tradition of setting my alarm for December 1st with the label: YOU SURVIVED. And it’s true. We have.

How do you mark such a day?

Have you been cast very low this year? 

Are you reading this from the lowest point in the valley or the bottom of the pit? 

(Hi friend, I’m here too.)

We both agreed—we were ready to move out of our season of separation and work towards coming back together again. As husband and wife. As a family of four.

It was time to rebuild. And I was in. All in.

In cases of divorce in the church, you and I will likely be in the position of the 99% looking on. How should we handle that? DEAR CHURCH, help and embrace her. Love from where you are.

Sometimes I lay awake at night feeling like such a massive burden to the people who love me. I feel so needy all the time. My friends and family have never begrudged helping me—ever. But it’s still a struggle to believe that I’m not a total drain on them. 

Maybe you feel this way too? 

I don’t have all the answers, but here are four things I’ve been pondering…

I’m fine. I have it all under control, really!

(Except, I don’t. Not even a little bit.)

Life seems to get more difficult with each passing year. My needs stack on top of one another and it all feels like way too much. 

The truth of the matter is that I need help. And you know what I’ve found? That’s a very good thing….

Her marriage withered, and her vows faded, but the word of her God remains forever. It is vitally important for you to remind her that the Word of God is true and trustworthy.

She doesn’t need verses ripped from context or simplified into platitudes. In our culture of “coffee mug verses” she needs to hear a deeper message, a fuller story.

God is not a man that he might lie, or a son of man that he might change his mind… (Numbers 23:19)

I struggle with these words.

You see, I have trust issues. I loved a man who lied and changed his mind and it made me question everyone in my life.

There are two versions of my life. There is the life I was living that I very much thought was real. But it turned out there was another life happening under the surface and behind closed doors. And this life ended up being the truer story. For 15 years I lived a life I thought was true, real, secure. Then in an instant, my beautiful life began to crack.

If Jesus can bear eternally the weight of my sin, guilt, and shame, then surely he can carry the weight of my tears. He already carried and paid for the biggest burden I could ever carry when he paid for my sin on the cross. If he is strong enough to save me to the uttermost, then he is CERTAINLY strong enough to bear my daily burdens (Psalm 68:19).