Have You Seen This?

I was reading my bible this morning (I'm a One Year Bible guy) and ran across yet another verse I'm sure I've missed all these years.

So much ministry energy is wasted trying to figure out why people die. You hear everything from "it must be God's will" to the ridiculous "they must have needed her more in heaven than we did on earth."  I always find those conversations frustrating, disappointing and heartbreaking all at once.  Because I'm not sure the image of God reflected in them bears much semblance to reality.

Enter Psalm 116.15:  "The Lord's loved ones are precious to him. It grieves him when they die". 

That's about a five year old New Living Translation rendition, but I love how it reads.  I think that summarizes the heart of God so well.  And I think if people could understand that the sin that entered the world and pains us so badly also pains the heart of God, our relationship with Him would run so much deeper and be filled with much more mutual love.   

Comments

[Rebekah]

So, the very cool thing about this post is that I was just talking to Heather Malnick about this the other day - the idea that we feel really unprepared to deal with death and the dying as new ministers. It's a tough thing. What do you say to someone when they know that they're dying? What do you do with a family in deep grief? Why didn't we spend massive amounts of time on this at Knox College, instead of some of the ridiculous stuff we DID spend our time on?

I'm glad that you shared that verse on your blog, Carey. Knowing that the Bible says that God's heart is hurt by death, too, is very helpful. I also love Psalm 34:18 in the NLT: "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed."

I love the idea of God rushing towards those who are brokenhearted, those who are in grief.

In general, humanity tends to blame God for our circumstances - especially when it comes to an unexpected illness or death. I understand why that happens...when we're grieving we tend to get angry at God. But it frustrates me at the same time. I'm frustrated that we blame God instead of looking around and seeing that we are constantly poisoning our air, water, food; that we are constantly neglecting our body's need for rest; that we are constantly making choices that impede our ability to keep living (or living well).

I wonder if part of God's sadness over death comes from the fact that God knows that if we'd just learn to listen to Him better, if we'd just learn to live the way He wants us to live, a lot of untimely death would be reduced.

Cheers,
R.