Lament

Lament is a tool that every minister of Christ should have in his or her tool bag.  What does it mean to lament?  It means to express passionately your grief.  It is crying.  It is mourning.  It is grieving.  Sometimes it's all you, or others, can do.

I've not seen much written on this topic, but in Wayne Cordeiro's book Sifted, he writes:

"A biblical response to disappointment, to the unanswered questions, the unresolved tension, the pain and suffering people bring to us is inviting them to lament.  This means that when a person comes to you, and the problem cannot be solved, you point them to Jesus and invite them to honestly pour out their heart to the Lord.  We know that God is the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3).  When we lament, we acknowledge that God is good and sovereign, yet life is not as we would like it to be.  We find validation for our grieving in our lamentation.  We learn that our emotions are permitted, that it is right to express them, even when those emotions include anger at injustice.  The biblical form of lamenting allows people to feel and express the discomfort and disappointment they experience living in a fallen world.  When you invite people to lament, you are acknowledging that you, as a church leader, are with them in their journey, and you empathize with what they are going through.  You do not try to cheer them up.  You do not try to fix all their problems.  You allow them to feel the hard truth, the raw emotions of the problem or circumstance.  And you point them to God."