A Time For Everything.

"Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief."
-C.S. Lewis

This quote reminds me, as it must remind us all at some point, how i felt after the loss of a loved one. No one likes to grief, no one enjoys feeling immense loss, but we do experience these things and we must learn to cope. Lewis says that part of grief is not only feeling it, but being reminded everyday that you are grieving; living in grief and thinking about the fact that you live in grief.

I think that what lewis describes about grief is almost worse than grief itself. You not only have the initial grief to bear but we are daily reminded of the fact that, that loved one wont be walking through the door again, won't be there to say Merry Christmas too, wont be there to hug or to laugh with, or that my uncle will never go his sons graduations, or their weddings. It is, in my opinion, absolutely worse to be reminded that we suffer daily than that first initial feelings of suffering.

Wouldn't you think that because this, the endless grief we face, is true we would be drowned by our sufferings, that we would be suffocated by our pain, that we would be drained of every last bit of hope by our grief? I certainly would think that. But no, we do not have to be continual, eternal victims of our grief. There is a source of light and of joy that we can look to. Ecclesiastes 3 says,

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

There is a time for everything, so we then can know that we are not meant to suffer forever. we can know that yes, we will suffer, we will loose mothers, fathers, brothers, and uncles, but the times of mourning and pain will subside. The raging storm of our pain will slowly come to a calm and like the sea, it will be a peaceful place once again. Life is not meant to be an endless winding road of pain. As it says in Ecclesiastes "there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..." There are times to rejoice in our Lord and be glad of our lives. Those times are what we look towards, but we must not forget that the times of suffering and grief and pain make us stronger, those times are what brings us closer to God. During those endless days of grief, when we look up from our bottomless pits, we realize that our savior is standing above us with an out stretched arm.

Here are words form Isaiah 61 verses 1-3:

"the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me,

because the lord has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORDs favor

and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion -

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

instead of mourning,

a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendor."

.kyle butts.
.i love you uncle.