Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father call out to us in our grief and suffering and struggle. Father, it is all too easy to think of you and your Son and the Holy Spirit, as apart from us, hidden, hiding, unseen. When we collapse into the darkest parts of our lives, the worst of the worst, where are you? Our hearts cry out for peace as they break. Our thoughts cry out for peace as they jumble about, shaken by suffering that is too much. What will we do? You are with us, Father. Jesus, your son, is with us. He, the Holy Spirit, whom you sent because of Jesus, is with us. God, you are with us. No matter how we feel. You will never leave us and never forsake us. Even in the hurt of our hearts, you are there. We can trust you and rest in you. In Jesus's name we can trust you! Amen.
Your Morning Song: "Is He Worthy" by Andrew Peterson
Your Morning Scripture: John 11:35
Jesus wept.
...
Before I became a pastor, I imagined what it would be like. What I would be doing. Sunday mornings, Bible Studies, visitation, counseling, discipleship, weddings, funerals, etc. I suppose it's like any other profession, there are the basic building blocks of your job that you can predict will be happening.
But I didn't know how many funerals I would be doing. I honestly cannot tell you, in the last two years, how many I have done. Both in our church body, and in the community, there have been far more than I could have imagined.
And I've noticed something. Early on, perhaps even at the very first eulogy that I gave, I was convicted that God need to speak. And that the people gathered to mourn, and remember, and celebrate, needed to know that God was speaking to them.
And so I would say that. "What does God have to say to you today, in this most difficult of times, of hurt, of loss?"
The answer to that question is what God would like each of us to remember today. What does God have to say to us in the midst of all manner of pain and suffering and loss?
Jesus wept.
When Jesus went to raise Lazarus from the dead, he saw all of Lazarus's family and friends grieving and hurting. He didn't tell them to get over it. He didn't tell them to stop. He didn't even say, "Hold on a second, let me go bring him back." Jesus stopped. He saw their pain. And He wept.
When we hurt, when we weep, our God, come in the flesh, weeps with us.
He doesn't laugh at our pain. He doesn't deny our grief. He doesn't roll His eyes at our broken hearts. He cries with us and for us.
Our God grieves with us when we grieve.
Jesus gets it. Jesus gets you.
And He was born, lived, died, and lived again, in part, so that we could rest in His perfect understanding and beautiful sympathy for our pain.
Our Lord and Savior understands how we feel, and meets us in the deepest, darkest parts of our hearts, to bring peace, and joy, and transformation.
Trust Jesus with your tears. He cover you with His.
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