Oh funny you should be using this scripture. I just sent this to Ky 1/29/10 (my time). We mourn many things in life, not just life. Loss of love, marriage, jobs, friendships, homes, communities. In all these losses there is mourning. We need to remember no matter how difficult the journey through these losses, joy does come in the morning! Even when we feel like we are alone in the mourning He was there all the time. He sees us throught that dark valley.

This Sunday we’ll be taking a closer look at Romans 12:15 where Paul says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” This week, we’ll look more closely at the phrase: “mourn with those who mourn.” First, let me tell you a story.

After Monica Elliott’s dad, Monty, passed away last summer, I drove down to Soldotna for the memorial service. Before then I had only spoken with Monty a couple of times and didn’t know him very well, but I wanted to be there to represent Hillcrest. The service was beautiful. All the right music was sung and all the right words were said. It was the kind of memorial service I hope is put together for me some day.

Throughout the course of the service, several people, including Monty’s pastor, relatives and co-workers spoke highly of the way Monty lived his life. He was an authentic Jesus follower. He gave his life away freely to others. He was always there for his family. I found myself choked up at several points in the service. Finally, I couldn’t contain my emotions any longer and began to sob. The kind of uncontrollable sobbing that comes from deep within. I mean, “head-in-my-hands-in-my-lap” sobbing. I must have been due for a good cry.

Did I mention that I barely knew Monty? I was with him and his family just a few times: in the hospital shortly after they got the word that the cancer was probably terminal, and a couple of times when he attended Hillcrest. That was it. Yet I felt a connection to this man and the people at the memorial service who knew him through our common bond in Christ. “Mourn with those who mourn.”

That day there was also a feeling that mourning and rejoicing were the same emotion. I could identify with the Psalmist when he wrote:

Psalm 30:10-12 / NLT
¹⁰Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
      Help me, O Lord.
¹¹You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
      You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
¹²that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
      O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!

What’s my point? I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to tell you a story…