Disillusioned to Self-Pity

Sugar coating is not a feature within the Scriptures. The writers of Holy Writ do no pull punches on the ugly history of the people of Israel, nor about their own feelings concerning their people, themselves, and even God. The prophet Jeremiah falls into the long line of those writers – along with the likes of David and other psalmists – who express their feelings to God in grim times. On one hand, this should embolden our faith in the trustworthiness of Scripture. For what religious text that attempts to bamboozle its readers into a false religion would openly display their complaints at the God whom they worship? On the other hand, Jeremiah’s complaints give us a sense of ease knowing that if God can handle the prophet’s complaints, He surely can handle ours.

In Jeremiah 15, the prophet extensively conveys his feelings towards God concerning the ministry he has been given. Jeremiah is disillusioned. Jeremiah has a thirty-year ministry of reminding Judah of their coming judgement, but also proclaiming to them repentance that could lead to restoration, to no avail. In modern ministry vernacular, we would consider Jermiah a ministry failure. But because Jeremiah knows that God called him, he remains in his prophetic ministry, but takes an opportunity to pour his heart out to the Lord. Yet, God does not annul his ministry. Instead, God responds with words of restoration and hope. And this is good news for us. Amid our pain and troubles, we have a God who is big enough to handle our questions and complaints. As writer Christopher J.H. Wright states, “God is gracious. God understands disillusionment. But God does not let his servants wallow in it; he calls us back in repentance and recommissions us to his service again.”[1]

As Wright states above, wallowing in our disillusionment is not good or healthy. There is a difference between expressing our frustration to God and living in a state of self-pity. Self-pity is more than frustration, it is “wounded pride.” It is the notion that nothing unfortunate should happen to us, and therefore there is nothing for us to repent of. As Wright again states, “it [self-pity] is a very subtle form of sin precisely because it is not recognized as sin at all. ‘Don’t ask me to repent, it’s those other sinners who are making my life a misery - they are the ones who need to repent!’”[2] As much as we have the freedom as God’s children to express our complaints to Him, we must be discerning and open to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to determine when we have moved from disillusionment to self-pity. When that occurs, the only remedy is repentance: “It is only through specific repentance before God of the self-centeredness and pride that lie at the core of self-pity that we can be released from its cloying grip and be raised up to a more healthy way of thinking and feeling.”[3]

Jeremiah’s complaint to the Lord, and the Lord’s subsequent response is an encouragement to us to not wallow in self-pity, but rather in the words of that Charles Albert Tindley hymn: “take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.” Our Lord can handle whatever ails us. May we be comforted in knowing that “whatever ails us, we have a God to go to, before whom we may spread our case and to whose omniscience we may appeal.”[4]

[1] (Wright, 2023)

[2] (Wright, 2023)

[3] (Wright, 2023)

[4] (Henry)

Bibliography

Henry, M. (n.d.). Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Wright, C. J. (2023). The Message of Jeremiah, Revised Edition. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.