an everlasting fresh start

Text: Lamentations 3:16-26

“Bring us back to you, God — we’re ready to come back. Give us a fresh start.”
Lamentations 5:21, The Message

There is something so heartbreakingly refreshing about the book of Lamentations. The honesty is cutting, even depressing. “He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes” (v. 16). Granted, these are not exactly the inspirational words one hopes to encounter first thing in the morning – or any time of day, for that matter. But is this not how life feels sometimes?

Like this poet, we live in the tension of the life we live and the life we long for. The broken pieces are just part of the journey, and they cut us hard and deep. “I have forgotten what happiness is,” he says in verse 17. Perhaps you can relate.

God does not ask us to ignore our pain or to write off our unhappiness. He does not demand that we push back our longings or our desire for more – more peace, more belonging, more love, more rest. Of the many truths we learn from scripture, that God can handle our emotions, our messiness and our fragility is certainly one of them.

We can give Him our whole selves – our unedited, unfiltered reality. And do you know what He gives us in return? Mercy.

His mercies are new every morning.
His mercies never come to an end.

Mercy today as we wake. Mercy tonight when we sleep. Mercy tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.

Mercy.
Mercy.
Mercy.

From now until eternity, mercy from our Lord.

Oh Sisters, can you believe it? You must! It is the endless, everlasting, all-encompassing fresh start, and it is yours today.

Bring us back to you, God — we’re ready to come back. Give us a fresh start. Amen.