Diary of a Broken Vessel

“…Now, one would not expect the world to have much time for the weakness of the psalmists’ cries. It is very disturbing, however, when these cries of lamentation disappear from the language and worship of the church. Perhaps the Western church feels no need to lament – but then it is sadly deluded about how healthy it really is in terms of numbers, influence and spiritual maturity. Perhaps – and this is more likely – it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarassing. Yet the human condition is a poor one – and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this. A diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party – a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals. Has an unconscious belief that Christianity is – or at least should be – all about health, wealth, and happiness corrupted the content of our worship?…In the psalms, God has given the church a language which allows it to express even the deepest agonies of the human soul in the context of worship. Does our contemporary language of worship reflect the horizon of the expectation regarding the believer’s experience which the psalter proposes as normative? If not, why not? Is it because the comfortable values of Western middle-class consumerism have silently infiltrated the church and made us consider such cries irrelevant, embarrassing, and signs of abject failure?”

-What Can Miserable Christians Sing?, Wages of Spin, Carl R. Trueman, pp 159-160

The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic & Contemporary Evangelism is a collection of essays written by Carl R. Trueman. “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” is the reason I purchased this book. The essay challenges the broad presentation the Western church offers of the Christian life and how we worship. Mr. Trueman rings on some key issues that we -as the Church- should carefully consider.

Initial Notes I jotted Down That I May or May Not Clean Up Later

To say we are faultless -or that we should not be concerned, critical, acutely aware, or empowered and willing to address such faults- is to confess a sincere naivety regarding how we can present ourselves to the world and to other Believers around us, an inability/unwillingness to speak on problems that we have in our ability to take on, or perhaps cold blind denial.

We -to paraphrase my brother- are an imperfect group of people trying to imitate a perfect God. I think that sometimes we fool ourselves and believe that we have attained that perfection. We fool ourselves into thinking that the Christian life is always rich, healthy, and happy. And when someone challenges that belief words like divisive, back-slidden, in sin, not walking with the Lord, get thrown out in an attempt at ostracizing individuals who may not actually be those things, but merely rock the boat by their presence.

I argue that the Christian life is one of Joy. In the midst of all things we can have the Joy of the Lord. I believe the Joy of the Lord is not something that makes us feel happy and cute and peppy, but is something that allows us to rest in and find comfort in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in all emotional states.

I remember many times when I was younger, when my depression was out of control, being told by other youth in my church -and the youth pastor- that I was not allowing the Joy of the Lord into my life. I was accused of rejecting the God’s Joy because I lamented and I hurt. However, I also remember clearly that there was a joy within me that rejoiced in the Lord Jesus. He was the only comfort I had, and it was only in Him that I could withstand the storm. Yet as I tried to explain what I meant, my words were tossed aside as foolishness.

Finding similar examples to my own story is not difficult task. There are even musical groups within the Christian genre that have songs that publicly discuss the issue of a significant portion of the church having the inability to face, embrace, and love the tragic and the broken. We -so it would seem- have a hard time looking at our own brokenness. It is as if we have exchanged the honest language of heartache for a cute let’s all just get along and ignore the uncomfortable chit-chat dialogue.

The Word of God promises believers trials and tribulations. It promises only victory in the Cross. We should rejoice always in Jesus Christ who has overcome the world which rises against us. But hurt, desperation, anguish, heartache, and the like is inevitable in our lives, and we should be honest with our Lord and with one another. We should learn how to lament in our worship of the Most High God of all creation. We should look at the examples set before us in Word of God to teach us what it means to cleave to our Lord in the midst of our lows. We should look to the Word of God to teach us how to love one another, encourage one another, uplift one another, and comfort one another in our times of trial and tribulation.

I think that Mr. Trueman may be on to something.