Pain happens in all of our hearts. Some days you wake up to a gnawing feeling that things are all wrong. Then you have to deal with it. You have a choice. My usual choice has been to deny it, ignore it and push it down. Then when it works its way out, I feel guilty about it. That is not honest or healthy.

For example, when I am lonely, I shove it down thinking, “other people are so much worse” and successfully shame myself for feeling lonely. This is how I deal with every other feeling that is negative. I shove it down then shame myself into faking it. I know I am supposed to be honest and often apply this to everything except honesty with myself and God.

You don’t have to read very far into Psalms to see the authors dealing with bad feelings in a much different way. They let it all out! In Psalms you will find the authors dealing with anger, sadness, blame, depression, sleeplessness, mistreatment, abuse, sickness, and injustice to name just a few issues. They even go so far as to wish their enemy’s children dead! This can’t be right. But seriously, it is in the Bible. We are taught that it is evil to express feelings like this. And we suppress it. We never admit it, we never deal with it and we shame ourselves for it. Well, it is the human condition. We are ALL sinners.

We all have bad thoughts and if we don’t deal with it we eventually act on them. The Psalms show us how to deal with it. The Psalms show us that we should pour them out to God. This is anything but denial. This is dealing with the negativity in a healthy way. Take it to the Lord in prayer. You can even write it out to him and let him know how you feel. He won’t be shocked. He loves you and he created you and he has done time in flesh-and-blood in this evil world. He gets it.

Check out this Psalm dealing with social injustice:

Psalm 12:1-5;7-8 MSG Quick, GOD, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, All the friends I depended on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues. Slice their lips off their faces! Pull The braggart tongues from their mouths! I’m tired of hearing, “We can talk anyone into anything! Our lips manage the world.” Into the hovels of the poor, Into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks: “I’ve had enough; I’m on my way To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched.” GOD, keep us safe from their lies, From the wicked who stalk us with lies, From the wicked who collect honors For their wonderful lies.

So I need to quit praying G-rated prayers. I need to get real. I need to learn to express my issues to my Father and Friend. I won’t shock Him. He already knows but I need to express it. I need to write it, vocalize it and sing it out to God just like the Psalmists.