A quote sent to me by my colleague Bert, really spoke to me today: “The sorrows and wounds God’s people receive from their losses are not miraculously healed after a short time of emotional catharsis. And sometimes in the church there is such an impatience with grief. Why isn’t Allan “over” Carol’s death or Connie over Tom’s since it’s been eighteen months — why can’t that mother get beyond the death of her ten-year old? But the lament-form of the Bible assumes that our grief is deep and ongoing, and it invites us to enter the discipline of expressing that grief in words that convey our anguish, in images that picture our despair, in written prayers that verbalize despondency. Why should God’s people be shoddy in their sorrow?” (2 Samuel Out of Every Adversity, Dale Ralph Davis pgs. 24-25) Thankfully this is only a minimal experience for us with a few, for the most part people have been so amazingly patient and longsuffering.
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