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I got the call from my husband a few Sundays ago.
“Can you come home?” I heard through his obvious tears.
I knew then. They had found our teammate and dear friend who had been missing for three days. He was hit by a speeding car while taking a motorcycle home… And I crumpled.
The following weeks were wrought with deep grief entangled with logistics of the funeral, raising funds for the burial, walking with our other teammates through such a shock, and then the everyday life that continues whether you want to face it or not.
Days after we found out, my Bible reading schedule took me through 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, which stopped me in my tracks—
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Light and momentary? But this, and so many heartaches of this world, sure don’t seem light and momentary. How could we reconcile and overcome this kind of grief? Lord, how do we endure this?
And yet, I was reminded that the Lord stands with us in it all. Saying, ‘My precious daughter, my dear son, I am close to your broken heart (Psalm 34:18). Come to me you who are weary, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Yes, in this world you will have trouble. But take heart, dear one. I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Let me hold you and weep with you through every heart-wrenching moment.’
When you feel you can’t breathe, or get out of bed, or fake one more smile or pleasantry. When you have the unanswerable questions as your constant companions.
He says: ‘I am your good Shepherd. I love you. I have overcome and you ultimately will one day, too. This wasn’t my original design. My child, it won’t always be this way…’
But while it still is, the seemingly unendurable pain during this ‘not yet’ side of heaven, He bids you come, especially when you don’t want to. There will be no true soul rest for your punctured heart anywhere else apart from His comforting arms. For yes, we have ultimate victory and the hope of eternal glory, but we also have the goodness of Him with us in the here and now, too.
Are there any hardships, griefs, or burdens you are holding that feel too heavy to bear? How can both the hope of eternal glory as well as the Comfort we have been given in the here and now help train your heart toward heaven and toward the love of Christ as you face these things that just came to your mind?
As I shared about in the devotion, our team just lost a dear Kenyan teammate and brother to a motorcycle accident. We have felt completely overwhelmed by this grief. Yet as I’ve reflected on the love of Jesus and the hope we have in eternity, I am blown away by his presence. That he is not a distant God who leaves us alone to these things. But he is one who stepped in, who sent his Holy Spirit to be our ever-present help, and who promises that it will not always be this way. Because I have learned the goodness of his character, I can trust him through this, too.