EMBRACE LAMENT

“And what I think we're all learning is that grief is hard, but there's grace in it as well. It's not something that can be rushed. I'm going to hit mute on my mic and Gabe, Sarah, take us in. What we're going to focus on today is a Wesleyan Biblical Theology of grief and my, I think there's a good possibility that this spills over into a second episode because we have a lot to talk about here.”

“I was reared in a church culture where everything had to be about joy. If you were feeling down, if you were experiencing grief or trauma, then you didn't have enough faith because the joy of the Lord is your strength. And while that's true, that doesn't mean that everything has to be hunky-dory. When bad things happened, you just moved on in that culture.”

“I had really come to believe that I would never know what it was like to feel a baby move in my womb. Every doctor's appointment I had ever had, anticipating a pregnancy that was all 12 years ago, it was always devastating news and difficult ultrasounds and saying goodbye too early. And so this gift of Bristol's life for us was really a season of joy that we hadn't ever experienced before.”

“Talk about how we all, and by we I mean the whole church, the whole culture are living really in a place of ashes and lament and what to do with that. I had a pretty profound experience with lament at the New Room Conference last week. I made a blog post that's kind of blown up in incredible ways. I think we all agree that as Christians, we're pretty bad at letting ourselves feel the things of grief.”

“It's hard. It's a bit surreal to realize that we, just a few months ago, had shared with you on Midnight Theology the incredible story of the miracle that was unfolding in our lives. So, if you're listening and you haven't quite heard the backstory, you will need that information just to understand what's unfolding in our lives in its fullness. And that's episode four of Midnight Theology, when we talk about God working miracles.”