Hope in Tragedy

Where is your hope in tragedy?

I listened to an awesome sermon this morning online, since several events precluded me and Hunter from attending church. Last week, Josh & I were working in the nursery and we missed the sermon. So I listened to last week's sermon entitled, "Unexpected Death and Unimaginable Comfort." Our pastor has been going through a series on death and it has been quite timely for our family.

As most of you know, we suffered a miscarriage on Christmas Day. Our sweet baby came into our lives and left way too soon. It has been rough to say goodbye so quickly to our child. We have decided to name him Patrick-- Josh & I both felt he was a boy, though we don't know that for sure. Josh & I were engaged on St. Patrick's Day in 2007 and we both love the story of St. Patrick.

I find great comfort knowing Patrick is with God and that he has a perfect body in Heaven. This is not how God intended the world to be. We look forward to glory where there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more death and we will get to be with God for all of eternity. Though I am sad I never met my dear son I am so happy for him to have escaped the pains of this Earth. Now he gets to stand face-to-face with God.

So back to this sermon. Chris outlined the stages of grief and described why it is good to grieve. And then he talked about the hope we have as Christians as we grieve. I want to invite anyone who has suffered a loss of any kind in their lives to listen to this sermon. I found great comfort in hearing that it is normal to grieve and healthy, even. And my heart longs for heaven all the more after hearing the description of glory that is to come.

Here is a link to the sermon.

I know not everyone has the time to listen to a whole sermon, so here are the notes I took:
1. We must dwell on the stunning promise and dramatic implications of immortality
II Corinthians 4:7-12
We have the treasure in jars of clay: a clay pot with diamonds, rubies, emeralds inside the clay pot.
We are mortals. We are prone to cracking, and eventually we will return to the dust from which we came.
We will all contend with death.

2. We must embrace the utter necessity and profound propriety of grief
I Thessalonians 4:13
Grieve-- you have to grieve. You must grieve. It is not an option.
Each person who is grieving in a healthy way is going to pass through all the stages of grief:
1. shock & denial
2. pain & guilt
3. bargaining: often with God
4. loneliness & depression (realization that life is not going to be the same) --> sometimes this takes a while
5. Reconstruction
6. Acceptance and hope --> reaching the "new" normal. It will never be the same, but it is a new normal.

--> process can take days or months or years. Every person deals with it differently.
We need to understand this is a natural process. We need to walk with people through every phase, not jump to the end.
--> we have to let people grieve.
BUT we must not grieve as though we have no hope.
--> HOPE in what? Not just hope that things will be better tomorrow. Not just hope that we will forget. Hope that is placed in someone. Hope that is grounded in a future beyond what we can even see in this life.
--> Even though death is painful and hard and fills us with grief, there is hope of a future glory.

3. We must cling to the awesome promise of eternal glory.
II Corinthians 4:16-18
The things that are unseen are eternal. This world that we live in is not a myth. This world is real, the pain is real.
--> the very struggle we are facing now is preparing us step-by-step to ponder more profoundly the weight of glory that awaits us.
--> The pain is real, but when you get to heaven it will seem like an instant!
--> gaze upon that which is unseen: our soul and the reunion of our soul with our body "eternal weight of glory."
--> what gives us significance?
--> our comfort in spite of our profound loss comes from knowing the faithful love of our savior, Jesus Christ.

Where is your hope in tragedy?
There is reality of sin, the fall, death in this world. This reality is transformed by the promises of eternal life.