Inconsolable Things

Inconsolable Things

Do Tears Count as Prayers?

I have watched this video http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/disturbing-images-come-out-syria-n31861 shown on NBC News a week or so ago, at least 25-30 times.  Each time I have watched it I have cried...no, not cried, wept.  The incredible sadness of this moment captured on Youtube and the wailing cry of the little boy have kept me awake at night.  The horror, helplessness, cruelty, sadness, loss, and grief of the moment have left me emotionally undone.

I think this is an example of what Zack Eswine, in his book, Sensing Jesus, describes as an "inconsolable thing."  "'Inconsolable things' are sins and miseries that will not be eradicated until heaven comes home, the things that only Jesus, and no one of us, can overcome." Inconsolable things expose my desire to be omniscient, (To understand why.) like God,  and to be omnipotent, (Able to fix things.) like God.  But, inconsolable things can only be dealt with by waiting, by prayer, by trust...not my strong suits I am afraid.  Chris Wright in The God I Don't Understand, notes that it is good and right for us to lament these inconsolable things.  The Psalms teach us to lament not with "why" so much as to ask" how long?"  How long must I long for Jesus to come?  The lamenting cries of "How Long?" bring healing, humility, and comfort in a way that an insistence on understanding why can never bring.  I don't understand that...How ironic is that statement?

I'd like to do something dramatic and  significant, to end the kind of suffering depicted above, but it is the inconsolable things that remind me of my impotence and sharpen the desperate longing for His return.  I will tell you, I have prayed for this little guy almost without ceasing since I first saw the video.  I weep for Him, I plead God's mercy, comfort and revelation of Himself to him and his bereaved family...I must believe that this is no little thing, not because of my "great" prayers, they are mostly tears actually, but because of the One to whom I pray.

Yes, I know, in fact I have already told myself the stock answers for the suffering we see and experience. The answers may even be true, but, the answers don't help the pain I feel or ease the desperate longing.  They do however force me to wait, to pray, and to trust...all of these make space for Presence, for the drawing near of the One who does know why, where, and even when.

In a strange way, I am more afraid of no longer hearing the wail of the little guy on the curb, than I am of feeling broken in my tears as I wait with desperate longing...

Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy!