“a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”
–Isaiah 53:3 ESV
For the past few days my thoughts have often been with the many worldwide who have suddenly come into grief. Actually, there is ample reason to dwell on this daily due to ravages of illness, starvation, wars, assaults, abuse, depression, oppression, etc. Yet with the COVID-19 numbers confronting me everywhere I look, the grief that others are facing often comes to mind.
I have been acquainted with grief.
In 1982, grief abruptly intruded my life with the sudden death of my 57-year-old father-in-law. Since then I’ve been impacted countless times by the grief of intimate family and friends or moved by the grieving of casual acquaintances and, more surprisingly, even by those I don’t know at all.
For decades I have realized that grief affects each person uniquely. We cannot tell someone HOW to grieve. We CAN, however, give them space and encouragement to grieve – in whatever way they need. And the forms in which grief expresses itself are MANY, far too many to list here. Those who assist with grief, professional or personal, have developed a compassionate discernment, an acknowledgement, and often a permission, verbal or silent, for the grieving one to proceed when the need surfaces.
Then a few months ago, I came upon this phrase – “acquainted with grief“ – right after a poignant discussion of our family’s four post-stroke years with Dale. For the first time, I sensed that grief has made me more like Christ. Wow…a purpose for the pain, clarified in one Scriptural phrase. Significant for me. I desire to follow hard after God, a term not often used yet pregnant with meaning: when the following, the pursuit, is itself difficult but definitely worth the travail. And He does not leave us alone as we pursue Him, but graces us with help – His Presence, the example of His Son, and the guidance of Holy Spirit. Thus we are able to continue following Him even in the hard times…seemingly impossible when alone or feeling alone, but possible WITH Him – that His plan, His will, be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
I say YES to following hard after God, even though I become more and more acquainted with grief. It serves well to develop in me a depth of compassion and insight into pain and its purpose, causing me to focus once again on the eternal. Hallelujah! We are eternal beings and yet so easily caught up in the physical realm, needing promptings to realign us with eternal perspective. So I rest in grief, rest in God, and find that joy fills my being from the inside out as His rivers of living water pour forth and bring life in the midst of sorrow.
Father thank you for Your plan and for Your guidance in following Christ, leaving us an example, so that we might follow in His steps. Help us to keep our eyes on the eternal, our spirit, the only part of us that will last forever.
(I Peter 2:21 ESV)
Tenth Avenue North “Hold My Heart”
https://youtu.be/qEz2PsLJ-RI
For Those Who Care 