Grief is an overwhelming burden, gripping at the very happiest places of my heart, and twisting them to pieces. The days go by, yet the ache does not diminish. God has used this time to teach me things about life and ministering to others. I know that in my life I have encountered friends/family that were aching as deeply as I am now. I know that I failed them in my meager or worse, absent, offerings of comfort. I see that now.
I see how desparately I long to be acknowledged in my agony, and it makes me realize that I so easily let the excuse, "I don't know what to say", be the way I eased my mind away from reaching out to that hurting person.
I realize now that "I'm sorry", can be the most powerful expression of sympathy someone can utter. I know now the power in a hug, a tight hug, that says I am going to hold your pain in my arms for a moment if it will ease your burden but for a second. I have witnessed that a listening ear, allowing you to say whatever must come out, however ugly it sounds, can help you to sort through the horror that is your loss and pain.
I know now, and I am so determined to reach out as much as I can to those hurting around me. It is never okay when a person is faced with a tragedy in their lives, unspeakable in its pain. It is worse, though, to let that person's agony go unacknowledged. I may feel awkward, not know what to say, fear that I will upset them more, yet these are completely unacceptable excuses. My feelings matter none in light of what they are facing, and each hurting person has the right, the NEED, to know that their pain is acknowledged and that someone cares to lift their burden, if only for a moment.
In the Bible, I Corinthians 12:26 speaks to our need to support those suffering and celebrating.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;
or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
As members of the body of Christ, as a believer, we must lift up those that are hurting with as much ease as we celebrate with those who are rejoicing.
