The last few days have held many interesting and quasi-exciting/challenging moments. One of the first things was a hand addressed piece of mail. That’s relatively unusual in our house. It was a note from the family of Mitch Plant. I was so moved by the included scripture:

 

Isaiah 58:10

Feed the hungry,

And help those in trouble. 

Then your light will shine 

Out from the darkness,

And the darkness around you

Will be as bright as noon. 

 

Yes, I did cry. This is such an appropriate scripture for Mitch and really the Plant and Bohlen families. What a simply perfect and probably heart wrenching choice as they walk with grief beside and in them. 

 

Second, Mary Ann Slade and I attended the Covid version of Winsome Women this past week. Both of us are still walking in grief over the loss of both of our parents. We discovered we both have been lonely in a way that is difficult to fix and feeling like wandering orphans of the world as for us, both sets of our parents have now left this world. As they say, ‘we know we will join them again someday’ but we also feel very strongly their absence in this world God created for His humans to live out their earthly lives. 

 

Mary Ann and I walked together for two days, talked so much, laughed a lot, sang God’s word in song and heard such inspirational sharing from people like Michael Card, Sandi Patti and Ruth Graham, all on the shores of Lake Michigan on cool, gray, often rainy days. The retreat theme was Joy and I think we found it together and certainly with God’s help and abiding presence. (Abiding – lasting a long time; enduring. A very intentional choice of wording)

 

You can lose yourself in hurt and we were reminded by every presenter there to send praise to God unceasingly!

 

Michael Card, singer, songwriter, theologian and author, put words to our current walk of woe with excruciating purport (Purport: the meaning or substance of something. Substance, my meaning, the very ‘stuff’ of something.) And maybe to your walks of woe too. Grief and feelings of loss and pain come to us by many paths, not solely by death alone. 

 

He uttered the word excruciating as he spoke of Jesus’ life and ripped that word apart for us. That was not a lightly chosen word by Michael that day, for within the word excruciating is the word ‘cruce’ which means cross. 

 

What does that mean? Well, we were not left in darkness. Michael continued to explain that a death on the cross was a most excruciating one. We cannot know joy without pain and Jesus brings it to us through the very act of the ugliness and pain of dying on the cross. 

 

Mary Ann and I looked at each other. We remembered Sandi Patti singing it to us, Ruth Graham speaking it to us as she shared of her loneliness, and Winsome Women Pastor, Patrick Bonnie, telling us it is all right to feel discouraged and hurt. If we but embrace it – we will eventually know Joy.  My mother, Barbara Crumm, was not in the line up of presenters, but she should have been. She knew that you need to speak to God of the joy you find and share your praises with him. We were always finding at least a little joy together each day as mother and daughter. 

 

The Plant/Bohlen family knows in the choice of the scripture for Mitch that feeding the hungry of Goodrich and beyond brought joy to Mitch. His food brought joy to us individually – come on, pause and think about it. 

 

So….feel the pain, the joy; we know that our lights will shine with the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit within us to erase that crippling darkness if we but return steadfastly to the journey. All these people have reminded us: Patrick, Sandi, Ruth, Michael, Barbara and Isaiah. 

 

But perhaps most importantly, Isaiah intimates that not only the darkness within us can dissipate but the light of God will shine, bright as noon, all around us. That means we, too, can be sharers of joy and light. Michael spoke of the angels of God speaking to people in the Bible and he jokingly asked us, “What is the first thing the angels always say when they appear?” He was smiling broadly. We answered in a good approximation of a chorus, “Be not afraid!” Like, how can you not be, right? He laughs and pantomimes how we might all react if an angel appeared to us and basically says take your moment to be afraid, terrified, scared, heebie jeebied, whatever.  Then get on with it! Praise, hurt, love, cry, find joy and shine the best we can at any given moment. 

 

Amen and Amen! So be it! We agree this is true!

 

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of GUMC