Written by Janelle Wangle with Jayleen Wangle via Bible Insight
Just about everyone has heard the anonymous saying, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.” I wonder what the original author meant by “dance”? If they meant that we just tell ourselves to be happy or at least pretend to be happy and “look for the silver lining,” then I disagree with the saying. But if dance means to have intimacy with God, then I heartily agree.

The last line of Michael Card’s song “Underneath the Door” says: “Pain is the pen that writes the songs and they call us forth to dance.” Card is calling us to dance to the songs that pain has written for us. These songs are written in major and minor keys. Many times they are not “beautiful,” and in fact are quite harsh, but the finished product is a masterpiece.

Learning to Lament

How do we dance to these songs? By being real with God. That’s the only way we can truly worship him. God wants all of us—not just our thank-yous and happy I-love-yous, but our anger, frustrations, fears, doubts, and so on. For if we hold anything back from him, we are being dishonest and therefore cannot worship him wholeheartedly.

Learn more through: Perspectives on Suffering

The way to be intimate with God is through lament, which is more than just being sad. Lament is something many Christians in the West have never heard of, or if they have, most likely it was in a negative context. But at least a third of the Psalms are laments and there is a book of the Bible named “Lamentations.” And consider Jesus on the cross. Everyone who was familiar with the Old Testament knew he was quoting Psalm 22 when they heard his anguished cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He also lamented in the Garden of Gethsemane when he begged his Father to remove the cup he was about to drink. It was so intense that he even sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:39-44).

Michael Card says in A Sacred Sorrow Experience Guide,

Many [laments] are poignant, such as David’s lament for his friend Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:19-27. But others are filled with fear (Psalm 55:5), confusion (Psalm 13), or even the blackest hatred (Psalm 109). In fact, the full range of human emotions is to be found in the laments of the Bible.
Paul writes in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (emphasis mine). Lament is the one way that we can know Christ in the fellowship of his suffering. In the forward of A Sacred Sorrow Experience Guide, Ken Cope writes:

Our traditional view of grief is that it should be reserved for funerals and tragedies. However, if we really want to encounter God and grow in our relationship with Him, then our attitude toward grief must change from viewing it as an uncomfortable and unwanted drop-in visitor to seeing it as a dear and faithful companion that is an integral part of our daily journey with God. It is there to allow us to enter into the heart of Philippians 3:10, which is an invitation to share in the fellowship of His suffering. When we allow ourselves to feel broken and alone, we gain a small measure of understanding of the sacrifice that Christ made for us in going to the cross and being broken for us. Grief draws us to God Himself in ways that could not be accomplished through any other means.
Read the rest here