Spring is HERE! Behold the NEW! Return to PRAISE!

What if “sad” is just part of the story? What if it doesn’t say anything about your worth or whether or not you did something right or wrong? What if it wasn’t your fault or their fault? What if “sad” is just part of the story? Pain happens. Loss happens. Death happens. “Sad” happens.

I was reading “The God Story,” written by a couple of dudes from England, which unfolds the entirety of Scripture in narrative form. I highly recommend it. Chapter 5 opens with this line, “Moses is dead!” It struck me…leapt off the page at me.

Of course, this is how the book of Joshua opens. The book of Joshua opens with death, but of course, we all know Joshua to be the one, strong and courageous, the one meant to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. It’s not the only book of the Bible like that. Ruth begins the same way. The book starts with death and sorrow. Hmm.

The chapter continued, “God has granted time for the Israelites to grieve…but equally God will not allow their sorrow to be prolonged. The past is to be grieved and honored but not sentimentalized. God is living this story with his people and it’s time for a NEW generation to turn the page and step into the next part of the drama.”

You see “NEW” is my word of the year, so I couldn’t help but hear the voice of the Lord. He whispered, “Maybe there’s no lesson to be learned and nothing to be figured out. Maybe there was just a sad part of the story. It just needs to be grieved, and then let go of, and then the page just needs to be turned. Maybe ‘sad’ is just a part of life, but then you’re allowed to turn the page and move on.”

Perfectionism doesn’t do well with “sad.” There’s always a lesson to be learned or some failure that needs to be uncovered so as to make better the situation. I remember I used to struggle so much with disappointment because I thought maybe it meant I messed up somehow or maybe that God was mean or unkind. But this side of Eden, “sad” happens. Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble.” And there’s freedom to embrace it, like really. Give it a hug. Go ahead and cry it out, and be held, even if it WAS because you blew it.

The Word says that we will grieve; we are just those that grieve WITH HOPE. Grieving is unfortunately a real part of life on this side, but it’s not the end of the story. Ecclesiastes says, “There’s a time to mourn,” but “there’s also a time to dance.” There’s also a time to put the sack cloth away and stop lamenting the past. I can’t help but believe that if we sit in pain, He will sit with us, but you know what, I also believe that if we look Him in the eyes, hand over our pain, and then take Him by the hand, He’ll get up with us and walk us into the NEW that He has for us. Sometimes, I think He’s waiting on us, and not the other way around.

A few years ago I was reading the book of Ruth, and this near jumped off the page at me as if God was yelling, “So, [Naomi] set out from where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah” (Ruth 1: 7). Where had Naomi been living? She’d been living in a land of loss and pain, a land of grief and sorrow. But she set out…she set out to Judah, her homeland, the land that means “Praise.” I wonder if there’s a key here.

It’s ok to be sad. It’s ok to cry. Just don’t stay there too long. Return to Praise.

For Naomi, she had to return to Praise. For Joshua, He had to lead the grieving Israelites into the land that God wanted to give them. God had courage to give Joshua. God had GOOD for Naomi. God had an assignment for both of them.

So, the other day, I let Jesus hold me in my pain. I cried it out. He didn’t blame me nor take a magnifying glass to point out where I could have done things differently. He just held me and whispered to me the same thing He did to the Israelites, to Joshua, to Naomi “Turn the page. Arise. Return to Praise.”

And I wonder if some of you are needing to do the same? To let go of winter and welcome Spring? To set aside the sorrow and return to Praise. Will you join me? “New” is just around the corner.

Love,
Kristi

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