Good morning…
On this day designated “World Gratitude Day”, we experience the raw bittersweetness of life. As a praying community, we prepare for tomorrow’s memorial service for sixteen year old Benji Reiser.
“Good morning Sue,” a friend wrote yesterday. “I read Benji’s obituary and genuinely cannot imagine the devastation not only in his family but also among his friends at this age when all of life seems ahead of them. Just so senseless and terribly heartbreaking. I know you have been called too many times to walk alongside those grieving lives lost way, way too soon.”
“I think of that powerful Katherine Wolfe quote I have saved so I’m always reminded of how much tenderness is an act of mercy in grief,” she continued, quoting Katherine, author of Hope Heals.
“There is such a time for truth, but there is also a time to listen. What people need so desperately in these seasons is not the, ‘you got this.’ When someone is not sure how they are going to get out of bed tomorrow, and someone is not ok from tremendous suffering, they need to hear, ‘I can’t believe this happened to your life, I am so sorry, your life blew up. You’re going to be ok, but it’s really hard.’
The ministry of truth comes later. Give them ministry of tears. Let people cry and cry with them, and to listen, and to hug, and to be present, because that is actually what they need. And then when the time is right, share truth when they can hear it.”
Cry. Listen. Hug. What great advice.
My friend concluded her text with another nourishing nugget: “I saw a quote the other day: ‘My advice for today: Only consume as much as you can pray for.'”
On this “World Gratitude Day”, may we only consume as much as we can pray through with God. Morning, noon, and night, I mulled over these things and cried out in my distress, and he heard my voice (Psalm 55:17, ISV).
…Sue…
