Jeremiah 20:13-18. Part of Jeremiah's lament over the way he is being treated for doing what God is asking him to do. Here Jeremiah says cursed be the day that he was born and the man who brought the news of his birth to his father. It would have been better if that man had killed Jeremiah in his mother's womb "so my mother would have been my grave." Why did he have to be born to see only toil, struggle, and to live in shame?

This whole lament is so raw. Jeremiah says some really awful things. He is angry and bitter with the way he is being treated, he wants vengeance on those who are acting so very badly and will not listen, but he recognizes that God is with him and is doing all of this to deliver the needy from the evildoers. Then he ends with this wish that he had never been born.

I totally get you, Jeremiah! I, to, feel called to prophesy at times - to point out the evil and the wrongness that is going on. When I do I often, in fact almost always, get ridiculed, ostracized, or I have curses heaped upon me. It is a completely thankless task, yet I know I am to keep doing it and I must strive to stay joyful in God's love and protection.

It's a heavy lift, but God really does give us the strength to do his will at all times. He puts people in our lives to be our support when our other support systems fail. He gives us the words to say, and makes it clear when we are to say them, as long as we remain open to him and trusting in him.