So, I've been reading and studying Lamentations, mainly out of The Message. And I'm getting so much out of it. It's so encouraging. When the exile happened people were in deeper suffering than we can imagine, there was cannibalism and they were even eating their own children. Sad, eh? Lamentations does a great job at displaying what it really feels like to suffer. How bad it hurts and how much you just want to die, when you're at the pit of your life. BUT it always brings it back to God and a hope in Him. So cool. I'm gonna share some versus that really spoke to me, and let you interpret them yourselves.

"...she's now a drudge. (ch1vs1) She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one's left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her. (ch1vs2)...never fees at home...stuck between a rock and a hard place. (ch1vs3)...Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions. (ch1vs5)...All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion's face. (ch1vs6)...she lost everything. (ch1vs7)...is an outcast. (ch1vs8)...She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she's crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand. 'Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts.' The enemy reached out to take all her favorite things. (ch1vs9-10)...Have you ever seen anything like this?...my pain, seen what he did to me, what God did to me in his rage? (ch1vs12)...He left me with nothing-left me sick, and sick of living. (ch1vs13)...For all this I weep, weep buckets of tears, and not a soul within miles around cares for my soul. (ch1vs16)...God has right on his side. I'm the one who did wrong....Look at what I'm going through! (ch1vs18)...I called to my friends; they betrayed me. (ch1vs19)...'O God, look at the trouble I'm in! My stomach in knots, my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion.' (ch1vs20)...No one listens, no one cares. (ch1vs21)...Total demolition! (ch2vs8)...My eyes are blind with tears, my stomach in a knot. My insides have turned to jelly over my people's fate. (ch2vs11)...Keep t hose tears flowing! As each night watch begins, get up and cry out in prayer. Pour your heart out face-to-face with the Master. Lift high your hands. Beg for the lives of your children who are starving to death out on the streets. (ch2vs18-19)I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, 'This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause.' (ch3vs17-18)... I remember it all-oh, how well I remember-the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope. God's loyal love couldn't of run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over.) He's all I got left. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off my yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions. Wait for hope to appear. Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The 'worst' is never the worst. Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way. (ch3vs19-33)...Let's take a good look at the way we're living and reorder our lives under God. Let's lift our hearts and hands at one and the same time, praying to God in heaven. (ch3vs40-41)...We've been to hell and back...River of tears pour from my eyes. (ch3vs48)...The tears stream from my eyes, an artesian well of tears. Until you, God, look down on high, look and see my tears. When I see what's happened to the young women in the city, the pain breaks my heart. (ch3vs49-51)...'I called out your name, O God, called from the bottom of the pit. You listened. (ch3vs55-56)...Get me out of here! Save me!'...You said, 'It's going to be all right.' (ch3vs57)...you brought me back alive! (ch3vs58)...We are doomed. (ch4vs18)...'Remember, God, all we've been through. (ch5vs1)...All the joy is gone from our hearts. Our dances have turned into dirges. (ch5vs15)...we can't see through the tears. (ch5vs17)...And yet, God, you're sovereign still, your throne intact and eternal. (ch5vs19)...Bring us back to you, God-we're ready to come back. Give us a fresh start. (ch5vs21)"