It’s okay to cry. Lament (Latin, lamenta) means to weep and wail. It is to complain, to express grief and sorrow. In fact, the Bible is full of laments, which are songs of grief or mourning. Many of the Psalms are considered laments and there’s even an entire book of the Bible called Lamentations!

Lament is brutal honesty about us and God. Many times we are taught to look on the bright side and pretend that everything is fine because we have “victory in Jesus.” Make no mistake: it’s good to positively trust God to redeem our situations, but the Bible also invites us to mourn honestly when bad things are happening by presenting those cries and complaints directly to God.

But like the psalmists, a fascinating thing will happen when we lament: our tone will change by the end. After lengthy sections scolding God, the psalmists often decide that trusting God is their best option. David writes, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3). Like David, we come to this place of recognising we are part of the problem.

That’s what Paul means when he writes that “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” (2 Corinthians 7:10a). We have sinned and we need redemption. We need to repent and to return (Hebrew, shuv). This is a call to action often preached by the early apostles like Paul, Peter and John. In the New Testament, repentance (Greek, metanoia) often means a change of mind – a new way of thinking and a new way of living.

This Easter is a good time to review our hearts (Greek, kardia) and return to the straight and narrow path. Perhaps we have wandered from God. Maybe we harbour spiritual pride and unforgiveness. As we walk with Jesus through the Easter season, we would do well to remember that God desires heart intimacy with us, for the heart is the home of love and the moral and spiritual core of what it means to be human.