July 5, 2026 - Lamentation Series 2026 (1)
About this episode
Pastor Brett Deal discusses the importance of embracing lament in the Christian faith and the dangers of ignoring grief and suffering.
A Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal. We surprise ourselves with pain when we ignore the grace of lament. We close our ears to the voice of grief and suffering in a naïve hope that what’s out of sight will remain out of mind. We read the Bible like a bouncing ball, alighting on the passages we find encouraging and rush past the others we find discouraging. We love to find ourselves with the Lord our Shepherd in green fields and beside still waters, saying, “I shall not want”; but what about when we find ourselves in the third of the psalms which cry out in lament? For every Psalm 23 there is a Psalm 88. Our optimism bias blinds us to reality in this life and leaves us confused when we suffer. It may seem a strange comfort, but I was greatly encouraged to read Walter C. Kaiser, one of the leading American theologians of our time, call out this trend in the Western church. He says that by avoiding the grace of lament “our own ability to find direction in the midst of calamity, pain, and suffering have been seriously truncated and rendered partially or totally ineffective.” It’s time to change that. We need to abandon the optimism bias we’ve built as a façade to hide an unformed…
People in this episode
Host: Pastor Brett Deal
Topics covered
- lamentation
- grief
- suffering
- faith
- optimism bias
- spiritual growth
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Psalm 23, Psalm 88
Places: Western church
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