Lamentations 3:46-51. "All our enemies rail against us; panic and pitfall have come upon us... my eyes flow with rivers of tears... My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees."

This is a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem, but for me the crying without ceasing really hit home. I have been there - I have been in a place where I was completely powerless to do anything about the pain and devastation going on in my life and in the lives of the people around me. My only recourse was to pray, and this prayer came with ceaseless crying - tears that I was unable to stop no matter how hard I tried. It is like the sorrow and the loss just took hold of my being - I embodied it. Prayer often triggered the tears, I think, because I know that God loves me and the people I love, I know he doesn't want me or them to suffer, I know that we brought this on ourselves and that we absolutely had to turn to him for help, and so I did.

The realization that this terrible sorrow and pain can only be healed by God, and that I just had to trust him, added regret and remorse to the mix - I had contributed to this state - we all had - and now I must wait for the Lord to "look down from heaven." I know he will, but I also know that getting out of this pit of despair is not a quick and easy fix - it takes time, trust, and work, walking with him.at every step. It takes complete surrender, which is so very hard!