Misery to Music--And I love her

 

Psalm 30

Ezekiel 36:26

Hebrews 8:10

John 16:20

2 Corinthians 7:10-13

Romans 8:18-25

Psalm 144:12-15

Revelation 21:4

Our good friends, Steve and Sharon Hagood, walked the horribly painful path of a cancer diagnosis over 11 years ago.  Our church prayed for Steve to be healed; we prayed for him, his family prayed for him.  Steve spent months in the hospital (Sharon CONSTANTLY by his side).   It was such a sad time for Steve, Sharon, and their girls.  We wanted him to be healed, but he passed away less than a year after diagnosis.  The healing that didn't come here was received in heaven. 

 

My mom passed away from Lewy Body Dementia just over 6 years ago.  She was hospitalized in 4 different facilities in 3 months, with 6 other facilities refusing to accept her.  We tried various medicines, treatments, therapies--nothing worked, and in fact some treatments made it worse.  When we met with palliative care, we came to the conclusion that she needed to die.  That's a hard truth to accept, but there was no resolution to her disease this side of heaven.

   

You can imagine the laments that were raised to God from our two families for our loved ones.  We cried out to God, and you better believe we had a list.  And because the human experience is "nothing new under the sun", I'm sure you could all tell a story of lament that was resolved, but not the way you wanted or pictured it to be. 

When I made the graphic for the first 3 weeks, it was our hands, raising our broken hearts to God.  This week, the graphic has been God taking our broken heart and giving us a new one in exchange. 

               

Ezekiel promises God will do that.  And Jesus signs His name to that promise, the New and Better Covenant,  by sacrificing Himself for us.  Jesus promised His disciples that their sorrow would be turned to joy.  Although that was a foreshadowing of the death and resurrection for then, it applies to us and for now, too, if we follow Jesus.  Because, as we learned in  week 1, the sermon on the mount teaches us to be grieved by our sin that separates us from God.   We start out at square one- poor in spirit, hopeless,  unsaved.  The next step is mourning--crying out, recognizing that we can't save ourselves.   The third step is humility--bringing our list to the One we cried out to.  Then the final step is hungering and thirsting for more--growing in our walk with Christ.  If we grieve as one who is hopeless, then hopeless we will always be.  But godly grief--crying out to God--produces a repentance that leads to salvation.  

There is no point comparing our suffering--grief, sorrow, regret, mourning, lament-- on earth as disciples of Christ Jesus to the glory that He has waiting for us.  All of creation longs for resolution, redemption, reconciliation.   

David, the king of Israel, prayed for his people--"There will be no breach in the walls, no going into captivity, and no cry of lament in our public squares.  Happy are the people with such blessings.  Happy are the people whose God is the LORD."  Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords--fulfills it--"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away."  

So what do we do with unresolved lament?  Or lament resolved NOT according to our list?  Let's look at our picardy third, the line of music that has been in our picture the whole time.

That whole line is minor--sad, depressing, melancholy, dark.  Until you get to the very end...Then there's a little "birdseye" above that last major note. A symbol of musical notation indicating that the note should be prolonged beyond the normal duration its note value would indicate.  Exactly how much longer is up to the performer or conductor.  Our Conductor indicated that our resolution--salvation, rest, restoration, peace in His Presence--will be held for eternity!!  If that doesn't prompt us to return with trust and praise--like Moses, like the Israelites, like Elijah, like Jeremiah, like the one leper, like Paul, like Jesus--I don't know what will!!  Jesus holds our sad songs in His loyal, faithful, unwavering, loving hands.  And He holds our resolution---now or later-- complete.  He loves us :)