According to Jesus. Those who have lost what is dear to them. Those who can barely hold on. Those whose grief feels more real than the sunshine outside. Those whose hearts break not merely for their own misfortune, but also for the plight of the world.
The beatitude of the world says that the happy-go-lucky are the ones who must be truly blessed. Truly favored. Truly happy. They’re the real winners of the world. The ones who win friends and influence people. Let’s be honest—they’re much more fun to be around than the mourners.
We avoid suffering and grief at all costs. Understandably so. Anyone who reads Jesus as saying, “So go out and give yourself something to really cry about!” is missing the point. But then, more dangerously and deceptively, we deny how bad it really hurts when loss comes. We sweep sadness under the rug with pithy, pseudo-religious catch phrases:
“I know the plans I have for you; plans to give you hope and a future.”
“God works all things for good.”
“God is good… ALL THE TIME! All the time… GOD IS GOOD!”
Except when he’s not. Except when “all the time” skips over today. Except when things only seem to be working out badly, and we can’t imagine any better for tomorrow. These are, I believe, theologically true statements; but also experientially hard-to-swallow statements. Sometimes it really, really, really doesn’t seem to be true that God is good. That we are blessed. That we are favored. So we feign an image of happiness, and we slap bumper stickers on our car, and we stage pictures of our dinners so we can add #blessed. But if we’re honest it doesn’t really always seem quite true.
There is a lot to mourn right now. As a human race. As a nation. As individuals. Only in acknowledging that darkness can we then truly step into the light of God’s blessing and goodness.
As Christians we would do well to become much more open to lament. This is a gift that the African American expression of Christianity in our culture has to offer the rest of us—the blessing that comes in lament. They have tasted the blessing of the kingdom in the midst of mourning more than most.
Supernatural comfort comes to those who make appropriate time and space for mourning and grief. We experience the favor of God when we allow that for ourselves. We extend the favor of God when we make that kind of space for others.
