The strange comfort of being real with our pain

Recently I went on a camping trip with my children. Some of the trip was a delight. Pizza with friends, and zip lining with church members was so fantastic. 

But at around 9:00 pm, when the rain started coming into our tent, and when my daughter started to weep, those 3 hours were hours of pain. I held her in my arms as it poured outside. It was deeply troubling, not because we got a little wet, but because my girl so desperately wanted to get "home."

As I read along in my daily bible reading, I was struck today by the strange comfort of Psalm 77 amidst that story. The writer was clearly angry, in pain, and confused with the God he has worshipped all of his life. 

"I cry aloud to God, aloud to God."

Crying out to God is often times the last resort. But when it happens, it is often due to deep anguish and deep rejection, for often times we try to hide our hearts from God, much less our friends and our family. 

Perhaps we never were heard from our parents. Perhaps someone hurt us in a way that left a mark that was so deep of a gash, that we cannot bear the thought of actually sharing hard thoughts with people. 

But the psalmist has courage. He blurts out

"he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago.”

Psalms 77:1-5 ESV