Lament for the Logical

For M, and all who worship God with logic.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

Psalm 130:5-6

I have lived among watchmen in many lands. Watchmen who keep guard at night, gates tightly locked, while families sleep safely inside homes surrounded by walls crowned with barbed wire. 

Watchmen who wait for the darkness to give way to light, the magic hour when fish begin to leap from the sea. 

Watchmen who sip hot milky chai before daybreak so they can take the sheep across the savannah as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon. 

Watchmen who pace the walls of human hearts, praying unceasingly until they see light pierce the darkness.

I have never seen a watchman weep with worry that the sun will not rise.

The sun always rises.

The writer of the lament we call Psalm 130 knew this. And even in darkness, he knew the logic of sunrise. If the sun is faithful to rise, how much more faithful is my God?

Therefore, I will wait for Him to rise in my darkness.

I will wait for Him even more than the watchman waits for the morning, for my God is even more faithful than the morning that has come every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade, every century, every millennium, for time eternal.

How much more my God?

Lament can be logical.

Lament is not something only Fs on the Myers Briggs do.

It is not just for the broken-hearted and crushed in spirit. The sad, the depressed.

Lament is also for the logical, the deep thinker who has thought himself into a corner and cannot think himself out of it. One who is confused, angry, unsure, unable to think his way through to the other side.

If morning always pushes the darkness away, how much more my God?

Lament is for everyone. God has given us a tool for honesty, the kind we may try to avoid with our intellectual machinations and clever thought processes, our strategies, our best cognitive efforts to solve the problems of this broken world.

Talk to him today, logical friend. Bring your honest complaint about how frustrating it is when you can’t find the solution, the peace, the work-around to make things better. Tell Him all about it, and trust the One whose thoughts are higher than yours.

Here’s a logical, linear lament tool for those willing to try.

Lord, I don’t like touchy-feely tools. But I’ll bring my thoughts and questions to you today and wait for you more than the watchman waits for the morning, yes, more than the watchman waits for the morning. Amen.

@audreycfrank

Photo by Javier Grixo on Unsplash