This post is a part 2 to what I wrote a couple days ago. I split the post in half, because the first part felt like it should be poetry. This post is mostly to tie up what I was saying, as well as highlight the words of the amazing Deacon at our church. May we all live by her words.
We make room for lament and grief in the church calendar during Lent, and it is the season that speaks to the depths of my soul. It is missing or overlooked too often in churches. We all know the time for rejoicing is coming - and has already come - but we need to take time to grieve now.
Jesus models this for us so beautifully when he took time to weep for Lazarus. Why? Why did Jesus do this when He knew Lazarus would be alive again soon? Why is it even recorded in the Bible?
Because we are not meant to skip the weeping. It is part of the process of healing and abundant life. It is hard. But it is good.
Psalm 126:5-6 says,
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
My friend, the Reverend Jan Buchanan says about these verses,
He does not tell us to stop weeping. We are not told to stop crying so we can get back to work (sowing). We are instructed to go out weeping – to keep doing kingdom work in whatever way our grief allows. The promise of coming back in with joy and with abundance (sheaves) is not dependent on us wiping our faces and getting ourselves together enough to work, but rather the promise is for those who, in their grieving, keep moving forward in the work God as called them to do, in whatever capacity our particular grief allows.
To that I say “Yes, and Amen”.