Hope Through the Storms of Sorrow
Loss of life is just devastating. There’s no way to get around it. It’s painful. Harsh. It takes your breath away. There have been a lot of hard losses around the people I’m running with lately. Amidst the pain, there’s a line that keeps ringing in my mind, “what joy for those whose hope is in the Name of the Lord.”
It’s a weird thing to talk about joy in the middle of the sharp feelings of loss. I wonder, however, if that’s when we may need joy the most. And there is a difference between joy and happiness. There’s no better place to look in times of trouble and confusion than to the Person of Jesus – how did He handle loss?
On the onset, Jesus was a Person who cared deeply during His time on earth. He wasn’t the annoying optimist who was never sad, nor was he the Debbie downer who wouldn’t step out of His negative feels. He felt both joy and sorrow to their full.
Jesus wept (John 11:35) at the sight of seeing the sorrow and brokenness death brought to the faces of his close friends and family. Both His and their sorrow was tangible and real. Remember what happened next, Jesus tells them to roll the stone away and calls for Lazarus to come out – and he does.
In the same way, we must not forget the story we find ourselves in. It is one where our time here on earth is just a piece of the journey. An adventure, that for the believer, culminates with us entering into the full glory of God. Paul, quoting the prophet Isaiah, says, “what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
There is an incredible destination that we are heading towards. The 15th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians details the awe-inspiring truth of our resurrected bodies that are to come.
Out of the resurrection, Paul proclaims what will be our new reality, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
Friend, please hear me closely, I am not meaning to diminish the sorrow loss brings. My intention is to remind us that for the believer – this is not the end. There will be a sting on this side of eternity, but our hope lies in the resurrection. For our faith believes that just as Jesus was raised, so will we.
It’s for this reason we are able to say, “what joy for those whose hope is in the Name of the Lord.” Yet, Jesus, knowing this, still wept and was moved deeply. God, in His wisdom, told us collectively to “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). We’re told, “blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
I don’t know where these words are finding you today. Maybe you’re running hand-in-hand with your people. Or maybe you’re right there in the midst of loss and sorrow. To both, can I just say – believe.
Amidst our sadness, friend, for those who have put their hope in Jesus Christ there is reason for joy as we consider them in their resurrected state, experiencing oneness with God. A truth worth hoping in through the storms of sorrow.
