I had a lot of different thoughts while reading through the paper. Here’s the only one I was able to grab hold of:

If we spend so much time avoiding lament, when there are clearly times in the Bible where people lament and cry out in sadness to God (one book is even titled Lamentations!), then what do we lose by cutting out the ability to lament in a communal setting? This is explored in the paper, but one point was glazed over in a few lines that I felt needed more attention.

A great deal was said about how a refusal to lament limits how deep our relationship with God can go. I would say that the same holds true for our relationship with others in the church. When we cannot express sadness and lament in the church, we limit how connected we can be with the church. Have you ever had someone sit with you through a difficult time? For me, in my hard time, the person didn’t have to “do” anything. They simply were there, checking up on me, and helping me bear my hardships. I feel closer to that person now than most others.

But as Christians, we have an addiction to “fixing” things, and if it can’t be fixed, then we leave that issue and focus on things that can be fixed. So, if a problem is one that can be addressed with action, then by all means, go to the church! But if you’re just feeling sad? Go feel sad in the back of the church so you don’t disrupt the praise and worship portion of the service.

Christians don’t like feeling sad. It reminds us that the world isn’t perfect. It reminds us that the world is broken and painful. We like church, in large part, because it gives us warm fuzzies inside. We don’t go for the pain, we go to cover up the pain. And that is extremely superficial. Church was meant to be so much more than an analgesic.

How much stronger and relevant would the church be today if it was a safe place to just be “not ok” when events in life take a hard turn? By not including the ability to lament in church, the church itself is missing an opportunity for a powerful ministry in people’s lives. People need a safe place to fall apart. The church should be a better option than “drinking with the buddies” when falling apart needs to happen.

The revelation of heaven is beyond man’s full comprehension. The bible states glimpses of heaven which ignite the spirit who reigns within every believer.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NASB)
54 But when this [a]perishable will have put on [b]the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5 (NASB)The Temporal and Eternal
5 For we know that if [a]the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a [b]pledge.

6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by [c]sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for [d]his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. 12 We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. 13 For if we [e]are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one [f]according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ [g]according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [h]he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and [i]He has [j]committed to us the word of reconciliation.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Telling the world anything less no matter how good it may sound disobedient and is a false gospel. Remember King Saul, who saved the best of what he was commanded by God via Samuel destroy, and said that that animals would be an offering to God? God rejected him because he did not do what God told him to do. God has rejected mainstream Christianity because those in it have substituted the gospel Jesus preached with a gospel about Jesus, a message He never commanded His people to preach.