Those that mourn will be comforted

It was just a couple of days ago I was on Facebook and had clicked on a post of a student I had seen grow up in the church. She is a college graduate who has been successful in her career and has also had many challenges. She has battled grief and loss over the past year and like in my case she is grieving the loss of her father.

Her post read, “Being sad does not make you a bad Christian. On the flip side, being happy 100% of the time doesn’t make you more holy or righteous. Being sad means that you are human, made in God’s image. Jesus experienced every emotion. Even grief. So, if that’s you, you aren’t far from God. In fact, you’re just like Him.”

She had shared a post from another individual whose words obviously brought her comfort though I did not fully agree with the quote. “ We need to hear more about grief in church. Everything ain’t praise break worthy. Everything ain’t a breakthrough waiting to happen.”

We push the praise break so much, but I have sat during a praise break broken, bruised, and wounded. Not just over death, loss. Grief is a thing. So why can’t we pull back the veil and be real about it?”

First of all, I want to make very clear I am not in opposition to this post as a whole. The community I live in has experienced much loss over the past few years. Grief is real and my position is not to belittle the pain caused by loss.

However, the Lord does not want us to stay in a place of despair, we need to keep moving forward, and yes I do disagree, everything that is a challenge is a breakthrough just waiting to happen. Jesus overcame death, hell, and the grave when Christ was resurrected back to life, and the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is living in us.

I totally agree with my friend’s statement that just because someone is sad does not make you a bad Christian.

Jacob, one of our spiritual fathers mourned for over forty years over the “so-called” death of Joseph. Jacob loved God and he continued to be faithful to God. Yet, Jacob spent forty years of his life wearing sackcloth on his body and ashes applied to his forehead while mourning for Joseph.

This I do know, in the Beatitudes found in Matthew chapter five Jesus said, Blessed, are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. I have found this to be true!

Just the other day a friend asked me, “How do you keep it all together? Your schedule, your family, counseling individuals, leading in different aspects of the community, how do you do it?” My answer to the question is this, the only way I can keep it together is by spending time with God. I have to have a quiet time with God and I have to spend time pursuing Jesus. I spend time in praise and worship, spend time in prayer, and I spend time in the Word of God. That is how I get through. That is where my strength comes from.

You may ask, how does that help you when it comes to sorrow and despair?

Isaiah 61:3 says; “To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

Here is what we need to understand, the Lord can give us Joy in mourning. However, that does not mean that the mourning process is over. God can give us the strength to keep going. When we choose praise that comes from a grateful heart, the praise will cover a spirit of heaviness but it doesn’t mean it all goes away. It takes time.

However, what I have learned is when I give praise to the Lord I am reminded that God is good regardless of my circumstances. I also have learned that God’s love endures forever. That is not just a general statement. God’s love endures forever personally and intimately in my life. The Lord never promised the sorrow would leave us quickly. The Lord has promised that we would be comforted.

Dave Truncone is the pastor of First Assembly of God Church in Van Buren.