Friday's Faith - Amidst My Tears

Friday's Faith

Amidst My Tears

It's really hard today

I don't know why;

It's a beautiful day,

not a cloud in the sky.

My heart is just broken;

The sobs and tears flow ~

My tears, your Bible soaking,

I'm missing my baby so…

Such a beautiful world,

Come alive in the spring,

But where's my baby girl

Amidst all these living things?

God bless us grieving dads and mothers,

For us, there's no relief;

Our hearts are ever overflowing

In this never-ending child-loss grief.

In this Bible given to you on Easter, 2000,

you were just turning 13...

In it you wrote:

My name: Merry Katherine Prince

The people I live with: My Mom & Dad, & 2 brothers

Things I'm good at: Running!

I like to read the Bible when I'm feeling: Lost, & in seek of help

Right now I try to please God by: Doing what is right

May I take a cue from you

as I feel lost, and seeking help,

and turn to my Lord for just a clue

to survive your loss amidst Grief's deepest well.

I look in your Bible and read our Lord's words…

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, 

....for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

.....for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

....for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

....for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

....for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, 

....for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

....for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of

righteousness,

....for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

~Matthew 5:3-12 NIV

Our value system is upside down,

As when we cry, we think we're weak,

But God in Heaven turns this all around,

For when we're at the bottom, and lost, it is Him we seek!

He comes to us, to bless our heart,

To be with us amidst this world's worst loss;

He consecrates this sacred time in the dark,

Meeting us even as we carry Grief's cross:

The poor in spirit taste a bit of His Heaven,

We who mourn, experience His own comforting,

In our meekness, we are most blessed,

For when we hunger for Him, He gives Himself more;

When we're merciful to ourselves and others, we'll receive mercy;

In our purified hearts, we better see Him!

As we give one another peace, He calls us His own daughters and sons,

And when we feel most put down, we again taste of His Heaven!

Thank You God for meeting me...

In my most weakened state of many tears,

You clear my eyes to help me see...

It is then, my Lord, that You most draw near,

granting me my much needed peace,

lifting my eyes with a view much more clear:

My child is with You and yet draws near to me,

and along with You, she wipes every tear…

Amidst a world filled with such skewed values,

It is in our tears

That You meet us and pat us,

As it is then, You and our child can best draw near,

Filling us with Love that holds the greatest of all value!

God bless us grieving dads and mothers

Who need Your comfort above all others!

Meet us here amidst each tear,

As You and our child ever to us will draw near…

Picture, thanks to Grieving Mothers, Darlene Thomas and Jill Compton
Poem - Amidst My Tears - Angie Bennett Prince - 4/5/2013
Scripture: NIV = New International Version

Tuesday's Trust - Living in a "House of Mourning" ~Tommy and Angie Prince

Tuesday's Trust

Living in a "House of Mourning"

~Tommy and Angie Prince

Everything the world is about is the push to "recover," hurry up and "get through" the grief and trauma of your loss. The world looks at the "good life" as

• being prosperous,
• having an abundance of possessions,
• seeking pleasure,
• pursuing happiness, and
• seeking self-sufficiency...

Then, you read along in Ecclesiastes, and God turns everything upside down.

"Let Me Grieve!" was my poem in last week's Friday's Faith. When I read scripture, God says this mourning is beneficial, not detrimental as many would have me think. So, for those of us in grief, if you are looking for meaning in your time of grief, read Ecclesiastes 7:1-4.

It's not that we want to be in the "house of mourning"; we didn't want to be in the "house of mourning." We didn't ask to be in the "house of mourning," but we were visited by a horrendous loss~the loss of our 19-year-old daughter in a car crash, and NOW -- now, we are residents in a "house of mourning."

And the strange thing is, Ecclesiastes says being in this "house of mourning" is a good thing, and that "sorrow" is better than "laughter"! So should we hurry up and get over this good thing? We don't know. We are just grieving our loss, attempting to manage our trauma, and learning to trust our God at a much deeper level... And somehow He comes alongside, ministers to us, and reminds us of what is most important about life. For that, we do count ourselves blessed.

A good name is better than fine perfume,

and the day of death better than the day of birth.

It is better to go to a house of mourning

than to go to a house of feasting.

Sorrow is better than laughter,

because a sad face is good for the heart.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

~Ecclesiastes 7:1-4

Pictures thanks to Fotosearch.com

Wednesday's Woe - "The Great Reversal" or Right-Side-Up in an Upside-Down World?

Wednesday's Woe

"The Great Reversal"

or

Right-Side-Up in an Upside-Down World?

~Tommy and Angie Prince

If the New Testament is full of suffering, why are we surprised?

All the disciples suffered (all were martyred but one of the entire group of Apostles that closely followed Jesus)! So then, why are our "Assumptive Beliefs" the opposite...That life should be predictable, that we should be able to manage our own lives, that if we do the right things we will be kept safe-prosperous even, etc.

As a Christian, we are supposed to be exposed to The Truth. The world view has compromised and distorted the Christian gospel message.

"We have been lulled into a sense of complacency by our sense of invulnerability."

~Loss of the Assumptive World: A Theory of Traumatic Loss, Jeffrey Kauffman

(This statement was not said about us, Tommy and Angie Prince, though it very well could have been.)

Rather, it was said of America after "the shock of the 9/11 attacks" occurred.

That world-view we had all fallen for at some level, is no different than that world view the psychologists describe as our "Assumptive Beliefs" that come crashing down when a major tragedy occurs:

There are, however, as we have seen repeatedly...certain life events that bring us face-to-face with the fact that our existing assumptive world can no longer keep us safe. What follows (after such a major tragedy) is a painful and protracted struggle to find a new set of assumptions to replace those that are now obsolete.

The life events that cause the most difficult psychosocial {and I would add spiritual} transitions are those that violate core assumptions concerning

• Self-trust, the assumption that, most of the time, I can cope with the world I meet;
• Other-trust, the assumption that, when necessary, I can count on others to keep me safe; and
• World-trust, the assumption that the world is a reasonably safe place.

Traumatic life events can undermine any or all of these assumptions of security.

~Loss of the Assumptive World: A Theory of Traumatic Loss, Jeffrey Kauffman

*****

What if the tragedies we have all undergone that have turned our lives "upside-down" are in reality the events that are restoring us to Jesus' view of what is "Right-Side Up"?

What does Jesus' "Right-Side Up" view of the world look like? Quite the opposite of what we in the west believe about the successful, upwardly-mobile life, I'm afraid..

Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler (one who seemed to be "managing" quite "well," having achieved a fortune even), that he should go and sell it all???

"Go...Sell all you have, and give to the poor..."

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then, come follow Me."

When the young man heard this, he went away sad for he had great wealth...

As He watched him go, Jesus told His disciples, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's Kingdom? Let Me tell you, it's easier to gallop a camel through a needle's eye than for the rich to enter God's Kingdom."

The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?"

Jesus looked hard at them and said,

"No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."

Then Peter chimed in, "We left everything and followed You. What do we get out of it?"

Jesus replied, "Yes, you have followed Me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed Me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel.

"And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields -- whatever -- because of Me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life.

"This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."

When did we fall for the Great Lie --that we should be self-sufficient, that people around us can be trusted to keep us safe, and that the world is a reasonably safe place...?

So tell us, what do you think...

Suffering: Exception or Rule?

Picture: http://weburbanist.com/2010/02/07/flip-this-home-10-unbelievable-upside-down-houses/

Loss of the Assumptive World: A Theory of Traumatic Loss, Jeffrey Kauffman, Editor, Dr. Therese Rando, Series Co-Editor, (Brunner-Routledge: New York), 2002, pp 238 - 239.

Scripture from The NIV and The Message, Matthew 19:16-21