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WHAT NOW? - WHEN GRIEVING
by Pastor Mike Fortune
March 4, 2017
YouTube: March of the Penguins
- Ride the wave (Luke 13:31-33; Psalm 27:14; John 20:17)
- Expect wounds (Luke 13:34; Psalm 91:4; Psalm 126:5-6; Wounded Healer Quote)
- Don't leave (Luke 13:35; Job 13:15; Job 1:21; Matthew 28:19-20)
Luke 13:31-33
31 At that time some Pharisees said to him, "Get away from here if you want to live! Herod Antipas wants to kill you!" 32 Jesus replied, "Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow; and the third day I will accomplish my purpose. 33 Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day I must proceed on my way. For it wouldn't do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem!
Reddit User "GSnow" in response to someone who posted "My friend just died. I don't know what to do."
As for grief, you'll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you're drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it's some physical thing. Maybe it's a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it's a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive. In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don't even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you'll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what's going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a street intersection, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything...and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life. Somewhere down the line, and it's different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at O'Hare. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you'll come out. Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don't really want them to. But you learn that you'll survive them. And other waves will come. And you'll survive them too. If you're lucky, you'll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks. - https://www.reddit.com/r/Ass
Psalm 27:14
14 Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.
John 20:17
17 "Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Luke 13:34
34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.
Psalm 91:4
4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Psalm 126:5-6 (Scripture Reading)
5 Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. 6 They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.
The Wounded Healer p.72
No one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with his whole person into the painful situation, without taking the risk of becoming hurt, wounded or even destroyed in the process...real martyrdom means a witness that starts with the willingness to cry with those who cry, laugh with those who laugh, and to make one's own painful and joyful experiences available as sources of clarification and understanding...In short: Who can take away suffering without entering it?" - Henri Nouwen
Luke 13:35
35 And now, look, your house is abandoned. And you will never see me again until you say, 'Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD!'"
Marilynn - Job 1:21
The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise [Blessed be] the name of the LORD!"
Matthew 28:20
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.