Weeping With Those Who Weep…Today
A call to the Body of Christ
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 1 Corinthians 12:26
Over the past 12 months, we all have been subjected to an extended season of suffering that few, if any, saw coming. The anguish and suffering have invaded relentlessly, like ceaseless waves wind-whipped, crashing against our battered shoreline. Even as I write this morning, my bride shares news from a new friend. The cancer has returned.
Again, the stomach tightens. Eyes look up into the graying sky, silently asking ageless questions. “Why, Father?” and “How long, O Lord?”
Of course our hearts desire to be happy. C.S. Lewis observed how instinctively we long for joy. Yet this side of heaven, we catch only glimpses whetting the taste but failing to fully satisfy. Still, we KNOW. We are created by Him for life, not for COVID or suicide or cancer.
Today we are born into the challenge of navigating in a thoroughly compromised creation. Doubt and chosen sin foolishly opened the door and invited death into a perfectly fashioned universe. Our world has never been the same. It has never been right. No generation’s technology and gadgets and human ingenuity can save us from the creation’s frustration.
And, Jesus said, this world is passing away.
OUR HOPE-CALLING AS THE BODY OF JESUS
We have a tested Advocate. God himself who took on our frail humanity, to fully experience everything we face and feel. Jesus wept deeply at the grave of Lazarus. He gets it. All of it. Everything. His invitation is to cast it on Him, because He cares for us.
We have a capable, caring Shepherd. He has walked successfully through the valley of the shadow of death. He knows like no one else how to lead His sheep through it, without fear of evil, to the mountains of eternal life. He will get us all there. He promises.
We have a purposeful Father. Fully capable of working all things together for the good for those who love God. For those called to His purpose of making us in every way — short of deity – like His Son.
We have a comforting Spirit. More often than ever before, I find myself inadequate in prayer. I feel more than I can say. He takes what I can express and groans before the Father with urgency.
We are not alone, and we are not forsaken. And most importantly, we have an overcoming Savior who died the most untimely, unjust, horrific death for sin possible, only to conquer in resurrection life and power. The winning card has been placed in our hands, by the grace of God. Our names are written above. Sin, sickness, and death will not win.
In these difficult days, Jesus weeps with us in our losses, but also will raise what we have temporarily lost out of the grave. There is coming a day when creation is released into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know this. We KNOW it. The glory that is to be revealed to us – and in which we will live FOREVER because of Christ – will make these present days of suffering like nothing.
Any comparison is unworthy of what is coming.
Thank you for weeping together these days. This we must do.
Thank you, too, for rejoicing together these days. This also we must do. Our inheritance from the Father is just on the horizon. Past the gray sky.