This book dares to speak ugly truths about God right next to beautiful ones. It does not hold back from speaking forth a theology that is awful and violent. It makes claims that I, as your pastor, as a Christian teacher, would never make. And it makes claims that I think are gorgeous and revelatory.
And yet, here it is in the Bible. With all of its contradiction and uncertainty and doubt and bold claims and brashness. Lamentations is a tiny microcosm of the whole of Scripture. Scripture which wrestles with God's role in the evil of the world. Our role in it. God's response. And lack of response.
I'm grateful for this book, because it grants us permission to be unfinished. Messy. Contradictory. Uncertain. Blasphemous. And still call ourselves a person of faith.