When I was an Associate Pastor, a young man in his 30s died after battling cancer. The Senior Pastor invited me to participate in the Celebration of Life and Funeral Service for the young man. In the pastor\u2019s message at the funeral he stated, \u201cWe grieve today for our loss, while also grieving today for what could have been in this young man\u2019s life: the missed milestones, celebrations, and shared experiences.\u201d The pastor\u2019s words struck a deep place within me because of my own experience of loss of friends in my late teens and early 20s. I had always tied my mourning to the loss of the friend but had not tied my mourning to the loss of opportunity and shared experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another experience, a man\u2019s son who was a law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty. I was no longer living in the community, but this man\u2019s phone number was still in my phone. A few months after the tragic death of his son, I reached out to the father. When I told him the purpose of my call, he said, \u201cIt is good to hear from you. Everyone else has moved on and I fear they don\u2019t realize I am still hurting.\u201d Mourning a loss wanes and flows as the days, weeks, and months march on in life. We are invited to reenter the daily flow of life and at times to act as though everything is back to normal. Yet, we know it is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Matthew 5:4, Jesus says, \u201cBlessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted<\/em>.\u201d Jesus\u2019 inclusion of our emotions speaks volumes to the reality of our God\u2019s presence with us in the celebrations and in the mourning. We can have a tendency in our faith to rush people through mourning back to happiness, missing out on the gift mourning can be as part of our healing and our memory. When we emphasize happiness as the only acceptable emotion in our faith, we may miss out on the comfort and peace of Jesus during our present struggle. We are blessed in our mourning because we have One who comforts us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Isaiah 61:1-3, we read of the coming Messiah that he will, \u201cbind up the brokenhearted<\/em>\u201d and \u201ccomfort all who mourn<\/em>.\u201d Jesus reads from this section of Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue in Luke 4 proclaiming this passage is fulfilled in his life. I am grateful that we have a Messiah who comforts us when we mourn and places an emphasis on the blessing of our mourning. It encompasses more than we know we have lost; it also encompasses all the possible experiences we were unable to share. Jesus\u2019 comfort goes beyond the world\u2019s comfort of our mourning, as we know we have a God who stays near to us and comforts us during our mourning whether it is one day later or one year later or ten years later\u2026Jesus is there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you are mourning, do you know God is there to comfort you? Even when those around you believe you need to \u201cmove on,\u201d do you know God is there to comfort you and walk with you? I give God thanks for Jesus not only emphasizing our mourning, but experiencing the emotion as well in his life, demonstrating to us the validity of our mourning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you comfort us in our mourning. Sometimes it seems our mourning sneaks up on us, flooding us with emotions. Thank you that you are there to walk with us and comfort us. In Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was an Associate Pastor, a young man in his 30s died after battling cancer. The Senior Pastor invited me to participate in the Celebration of Life and Funeral Service for the young man. In the pastor\u2019s message at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t