The Scriptures are filled with desperate cries of the heart… “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” (Psalm 13:1-2). “Make haste to help me, O LORD, my salvation!” (Psalm 38:22). “My soul melts away from sorrow; strengthen me according to your word” (Psalm 119:28). “Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit” (Psalm 143:7). God know that “hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov. 13:12), so there can be no turning to God, no teshuvah, apart from the presence of real hope (תִּקְוָה). Indeed, as the Apostle Paul wrote: “We are saved by hope” (Rom. 8:24).
The late Henri Nouwen wrote, “I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving.” Contrition, grief, and regret for our sins is at the heart of genuine teshuvah. Crying is a expression of utter humility, helplessness, and need. In this life we weep over many things, but we inwardly cry for our Abba, our heavenly Father’s love… “Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are summoning you to where you should go next” (Frederick Buechner).
“Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where you should go to next. (Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: 1988).
An old Jewish prayer, uttered somewhat wistfully, begins, “O Lord, I know that Thou wilt help us; but wilt Thou help us before Thou wilt help us?” It’s not always easy to wait for God, especially when we are in pain or anxiety, but we must never, ever, give up; we must never ever, abandon our heart’s longing for ultimate healing. Faith exercises hope in the Reality, Substance, and Being (ὑπόστασις) of the Invisible and is made captive to undying hope (Heb. 11:1). Therefore the Spirit cries out: “Hope to the LORD; be strong and strengthen your heart; and (again) hope to the LORD” (Psalm 27:14). “Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who walks with the wounded” (שֶׁהוֹלֵךְ עִם הַפְצוּעִים).
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