Someone recently shared with me some of Skye Jethani’s thoughts on the power of gratitude to help people live out their faith at work (from his book Whole-Life Generosity Devotional). I was reminded of sermons I have heard, usually around Thanksgiving, that convicted me of the importance of gratitude. It is not just something that we ought to do to honor God, it is something that can change us. Jethani quotes Ann Voskamp, “Giving thanks…is the way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presence, and it is always a practice of the eyes. We don’t have to change what we see.  Only the way we see.” Practicing gratitude helps us to see God, and it will help us in our struggle to see God at our work.
As I was being reminded of this important Biblical charge to practice gratitude, highlighted in 1 Thess 5:18, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, of course all the difficult aspects of work came to mind… all the work circumstances that can be very upsetting. Are we supposed to be thankful for those? There are a number of ways to read 1 Thess 5:18, but that is not what I want to look at in this blog post.

I want to look at another Biblical practice that does not get as much attention as gratitude, but may well be a necessary companion, especially when it comes to our work lives. And that is the practice of lament. Lament, in some ways, is the opposite of gratitude. Rather than trying to find what is good in work life, lament leans into what is bad about it. Modeled in many psalms, lament spends time expressing what is distressing us about our lives. A commitment to practicing gratitude can feel like we need to ignore or look away from those things that cause us grief, but lament invites us to experience them with God, pouring out whatever negative feelings and emotions that we have about them.

It is these negative feelings and emotions that make lament a necessary companion to gratitude. If we are focused on gratitude, we will view these negative feelings as something we need to be rid of in order to be grateful. This can cause us to bury them or deny them, to not feel them, or certainly not feel them deeply. But when we do this, we are usually not rid of them. Instead they linger below the surface until they eventually seep out, or erupt, both at work and at home.

Lament provides the space to feel and express these emotions in the private presence of our God who not only can handle it, but invites this kind of intimacy. So lament is a healthy practice for us to handle the things at work (including people!) that cause us to be disappointed, frustrated, angry, or hurt. It also can be a place where we can encounter God in a mysterious way. That is the testimony of the psalms of lament as the psalmist often moves from deep lament and distress to praise and thanksgiving.

There are more and more articles and books rediscovering the practice of lament with various templates to guide someone in the creating their own lament psalm. Here is a guide about what to express when you encounter distressing aspects of your work.

Here is what is going on in my work….

It makes me feel…..

And yet I know this is true about God…..

Because of that, I will….

O God please….

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” Practice that at your work. But are there some things about work that are best to take with lament?

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.