Comfort Through Lament

On June 22, 2007, a hit-and-run incident left Daniel McConchie paralyzed from the waist down. McConchie states, “God has not healed my affliction, but he has taught me the power of lamenting to him about it.” God be present. It is through lament that Christians demonstrate their faith that God is present. Listen to a lament Daniel McConchie wrote a year after the accident:

Oh Lord, my God! Why do you wait to show up?

I cried out to you when trouble struck.

I asked for your restoration.

I know that you heard me. I know that you answered.

Yet nothing—nothing of meaning happens again today.

Infinitesimal changes dog my days.

I am hounded by the prayers of the fickle

Looking to me to prove their faith.

Wearily I drag on

Tiring of the waste, hating the horror,

The pain, the suffering, the never-ending trial.

The endless story drags on, and on, and on.

When will the clouds break?

When will the night cease?

When will the tunnel end?

When will you smile again?

What a two-edged sword your voice is!

You speak. And then wait?

You give hope. And then vanish into the mist?

Have you forgotten me? Have more important things arrested your attention?

Hope turns black. This evil I have seen.

Nightly my dreams show me restored,

And in the morning I am broken again

Cursed to relive the horror of suffering’s first day.

Please slay me! Blot my name from the ranks of the living!

For in the grave can I finally rest.

My wife can have her dreams again;

My children a father who can provide as I should.

I wasted my youth. I dismissed the joys I should have embraced. Now I am a mere spectator pretending to be consequential while others take my place.

A position I threw away one fateful day.

How long? How long must I wait here in the middle?

Between healing and hell,

Between heaven and horror,

I am unable to move … unable to see … lost in eternal confusion.

My demons torment me

Batting me about like a toy, I spin and crash in endless cycle.

I no longer know which way is up,

Which way is right, which way to go.

Which way is the path to life?

Is it up an unclimbable mountain?

Or on a path tread by all but me

And the others who are broken like I?

Surely it is impossible for me alone to find and impossible for me to transverse.

Alone I am finished,

Dust left for the broom.

Who am I that God should remember me?

My only salvation is that he should not forget his image, Or let his word be broken.

He is faithful to us because he is faithful to himself.

There is nothing I can do,

In no way can I help. I sit in the ruins and wait,

And take comfort in those who lie in the ashes with me.

But one day, by his promise, I will stand;

Restored as his message of hope is fulfilled.

The Lord will turn this horror into a fading dream,

And I will honor his name forever.