Hello and welcome to the Bridgestown Daily podcast. My name is Tim Hughes and with my wife Rachel

Wheelie the Church of Birmingham UK called Gastrie. We love John Mark and your church and

so it is a real honor to join with you today. This week we've been looking at LeMenn, this

beautiful expression of worship where we come before God amidst all the pain, all the

questions the hurt and the disappointments. And LeMenn gives us a voice. It allows us to acknowledge

that everything is not always okay. The Psalms have so much to teach us and how we bring the whole

of our lives into communion with God. They embrace the reality of disarray and suffering. They never

deny nor hide away from a sense of darkness and pain. They are very comfortable at expressing

LeMenn. As Walter Brugamon says the Psalms are speech at the limit. For many of us there's so much

that we're currently trying to process and God doesn't want us to bottle up all these emotions

to pretend everything is great. Our pain needs a voice. More than that the brokenness and the pain

in our world needs a voice. It needs to be acknowledged but it can be directed to God. And this is what

LeMenn is. I love what Dan Allende writes about LeMenn. He says Christians seldom sing in the

minor key. We fear the somber. We seem to hold sorrow in lower steam. We seem predisposed to

fail LeMenn as a quick slide into doubt and despair failing to see that doubt and despair are the

dark soil necessary to grow confidence and joy. It's in LeMenn that we begin a pathway to hope

and healing. And some of us if we're honest find LeMenn uncomfortable because we feel somehow

that in expressing our questions and our disappointments that we're dishonoring God, we're communicating

a lack of gratitude. There is a huge difference between grumbling and LeMenn. LeMenn is always God

focused and directed. Actually communicating the worst of us is a beautiful sign of intimacy

and worship. The people that I share my deepest darkest fears and secrets with those that see the

very worst of me are those that I love most dearly, those that I'm closest to. It shows deep love

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