Finding ourselves in the Psalms

Becca introduces us to Walter Brueggemann's pattern of the life of faith. We are always moving in different ways (and perhaps even in different parts of our life) from: * secure orientation - where life makes sense, all seems well, we're in a state of equilibrium; to * painful disorientation - where life is chaotic, disordered, things don't make sense, we're swept off our feet by something unexpected (or unjust) and we feel disoriented; through to * surprising reorientation - where things begin to feel 'new' again, not a return to what was, but a movement towards surprising grace, risky hope, unexpected regrounding. We are rarely in control of when or how this reorientation comes. The Psalms as a whole book contain the full spectrum of human experience and emotions, and even within any given Psalm we can see the movement from secure orientation to painful disorientation or painful disorientation to surprising reorientation. The Psalms give us permission to be ourselves, exactly as we are, raw, honest and unfiltered before God. The Psalms remind us that God does not want a curated 'nice' relationship with us, but can handle our grief, rage, despair, fear, longing, lostness and exhaustion.