“We Are Haunted Houses”

Here’s a quote from a recent interview with Peter Rollins:

“Within the charismatic tradition there was a sense sometimes that God could speak through you in a way you couldn’t even understand – you know, speaking in tongues for example. So there were implicitly some ideas of mystery and uncertainty.

However that was often disguised in a form of: “We have the right answers. We’re complete, we’re happy” – when, of course, the truth was anything but. What I mean is, people were saying: ‘I’m satisfied, I’m whole and complete’, and yet, their unhappiness was there.

If we go quiet for two days, we realise that we are haunted houses – that we’re full of ghosts. We fill our days up with so much activity – but whenever I try to stand back, I realise that, no, I haven’t overcome my brokenness. I realise all the apologetic books I have read, they haven’t really made me feel certain – they were actually covering over my anxieties.”

I’d recommend the whole interview. It reminds me a bit of a post I wrote over a year ago that I titled “The Christian Life In Word And Song” about how we sabotage ourselves with our expectations. Elsewhere in the interview Rollins talks about there not being a space for doubt or a space for lament in our liturgies. That was another part of what I was driving at in my own way. What does the church do with doubt or with lament? Thoughts?