June Newsletter

Good Grief — It is a strange season, the end of May and beginning of June. It’s full of

celebrations—Mothers and Father’s Day, graduations, even Memorial Day (which we celebrate, but is really more of a remembrance). In the midst of it, it is strange to think of grief. But God has put, it seems, several hard things in front of this community: two teenagers have drowned in the past few days, separate incidents, but both connecting back to youth in this church. One had just graduated High School. In the midst of all this celebrating, it is a hard thing to bear. I can’t imagine what their families are going through. And it made me think, especially when speaking to young people, of all the un- helpful things that sometimes pass our lips in hard times. Yes, we all grieve differently, and yes we all need to find answers to hard questions. But here are a few things I hope we can retire—both to better support the young people we love, and also to better represent the God who IS love. My nominees for phrases we should retire are (drumroll please):

1. All things happen for a reason. Well, it may be true, but sometimes that reason is that

terrible accidents happen or people are jerks or our bodies are fragile. Not because God

planned it.

2. God just wanted this person back home in heaven. Or needed another angel or a flower for the garden… c’mon y’all, this makes God seem like a serial killer. Scripture says over and over God wants us to have long, happy, healthy lives. It is tragic when that doesn’t happen.

3. This hard thing happened to teach us something. This one is tricky—can we learn from hard situations? Certainly. God can work through anything. But God isn’t some cosmic trickster sending us hard things in order to teach a lesson. God wants and gives only good things to us.

Do you have others to add to the list? These things might sound nit-picky, especially with these phrases we have probably heard and said all our lives. But we have to be aware, especially talking with young folks, of the image of God that is under our words of comfort. We all need to know, especially in hard times, that God loves us, and that God isn’t causing our grief, but rather grieves right along with us.

Love, Pastor Monica

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