What Do I Do With This? with Pastor Ryan

God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here.

Thank you for this beautiful baptism.

We give you thanks for all the little ones in this place and in this space that you have blessed us with.

We ask God that you would this morning, would you come and transform us and give us new life and all the ways we need it so desperately, and would you speak to us.

God, we believe that you are real and that, though we can't always explain you or even explain you very well at all, we declare our faith in you in the midst of the mystery and ask that you would come and reveal more of yourself to us.

Would you give us a keen sense of the transcendent this morning?

And may we know that you are present with us in our times of grief and sorrow and loss and pain, and that even when we feel alone, it's then that we can realize that we're never alone.

So this morning, we just come and we gather and we lean into this time and each other and we bless us in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen, you be seated.

Holy smoke arenas.

There's a lot of people here.

This is great.

Look around.

I love it.

Yeah, but the front pews are wide open.

So if you want to get the spirit of God, you can come closer and just kidding, but you can't.

They're open.

Hey, I thank you for being here.

I've been gone for a couple of weeks.

You didn't even notice.

You're like who cares.

But I did want to say thank you for your prayers and I wanted to show you some photographic proof that I was still alive when I was away.

But I was in Florida for two weeks, kind of on two separate trips.

One I was graciously invited to the Feed my Starving Children their annual event or their annual conference with their partners, and they had over 250 people there.

Kelsey I'm looking at Kelsey she's on staff with them and it was awesome to be down there with them, and so if you don't know much about Feed my Starving Children, you should check them out.

They're headquartered here and they have lots of locations, but there's partners around the globe and they all met up in Fort Lauderdale, actually north of their hotel, and I was invited to be the keynote speaker, which was really great, and so each morning I have to share with all of them and just a blast of a time and so I did want to share with you my favorite part of the event, besides speaking, was, of course, this the donut wall.

Yes, it's amazing.

I don't know if you saw it on my Instagram feed, but that is a wall of donuts.

I have no idea how clean or hygienic this really is to consume donuts this way, but who cares?

They're donuts.

It's a donut wall.

You know what I'm saying.

Sometimes you got to eat the donut.

Then my wife and I were able to go down to Miami.

I was invited by a couple that go here, christina and Jeff.

They aren't here this morning, are they?

I don't think so.

They're still in Japan on their honeymoon, I think.

But anyway, we were invited to Miami this is in Little Havana for the rehearsal dinner, and so we were down there for a couple of days and got to marry this couple down right off the coast.

They're not beach people, so they were off the beach by little ways, but it was really a great time, and so thank you for your prayers and your grace in letting me be away this morning.

I want to talk about laments, if you don't know what a lament is.

A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow, and there's a whole bunch of laments in the Bible, and so I thought it only appropriate to speak about, you know, grief and sorrow on this day Super Bowl Sunday since neither my Broncos nor your Vikings are in the Super Bowl.

So here we are, we can lament together or Packer fans.

Fine, you can lament too with us if you want to.

But yeah, I was talking with a therapist a little while ago and she said to me she's like Ryan, I think you maybe experienced some trauma in your childhood.

You should probably address that.

And of course, my reaction was like trauma, come on, no, that's not true.

I didn't know, I didn't begin to talk.

She's like no, no, you really.

I think you've experienced some things and if you know my story, you know my story was not it was unorthodox, I would say, growing up, but I was like there's no way I experienced trauma.

I don't know what you're talking about.

It wasn't like I was lit on fire or, you know, dropped out of an airplane or eaten by an alligator or nothing like that.

And then I learned, over the course of time and weeks and even conversations with different people who are much smarter than I am, the word trauma, which does get thrown around a bit today in our world today, and maybe it's overused or misused.

Either way, I learned that the actual, the literal meaning of the word trauma just means wound, and so I've learned.

Many of us, if not all of us, dare I say have experienced some level of trauma.

Now there might be different views on the outside of like, oh, that's an acute trauma or a severe trauma.

This was not as bad and not as acute.

But here's the deal about trauma or pain, or suffering or grief.

It's really impossible though we love to do it, it's impossible to compare pain, because your pain really is your pain, and if it's painful, it's painful.

It doesn't make the pain go away to say, well, I'm not as bad off as that guy over there.

We think it does, but it really doesn't.

And I've learned if it's a big deal to you, it's a big deal, and so the only thing to do is like, okay, what do I make of this wound?

And you might say, oh, I've had some small wounds over time or some larger wounds.

That's fine, but just know that there's no way to compare them.

They're all wounds.

And I think it's like this when you experience a wound, it's as though somebody's handing you something.

Maybe it was them that caused the wound, or maybe it was life in general, but in some way shape or form, when we are experiencing a wound or a piercing or a trauma, it's like we're given something big and kind of clunky and heavy.

Are you with me?

So I feel like when you experience a wound, it's something like this.

And so when I was younger, I definitely had a lot of moments in my life as I'm sure maybe many of you did where you just sort of handed this thing, and maybe as a kid or even as a young adult or even as an adult, you're like what do I do with this?

My parents were divorced when I was about eight years old, and eight-year-olds can't only figure that kind of thing out.

Maybe adults can't even figure it out and you're kind of given this thing.

I was raised by a single mother, did an amazing job, the best she knew how, but you're kind of given this like what do I do with all this?

By the way, looking back I laugh because I'm uncomfortable.

But I've also done this to other people over the course of my time as a young man and I've wounded other people and they're given this and they're given this and they're like what do you do with this.

Maybe you watch the news and you're kind of handed this because we are over-consumed with the amount of news and media that we are.

What am I trying to say here?

The amount of news and media and headlines that we see on a daily basis is unlike ever in human history.

We are privy to seeing all kinds of suffering and pain and distress and grief all around the world which 20 years ago we never would be able to witness that kind of stuff.

So what do we do with all that that pain, that sorrow, that trauma, especially if we live miles and miles away from the thing that's actually happening?

What do we do with all this trauma, this woundiness, this grief, this pain and suffering, this heaviness?

As I mentioned in my email, recently I was in Miami, on the beach or just up the coast at the rehearsal.

I got a call from a dear friend of mine and he told me that our mutual friend had died and John passed away about two weeks ago now, a week and a half ago now, and I've known him for a long time and he died way too young, at an early age, and there's many parts about that that are just a tragedy.

And there we are, my wife and I, in Miami, like what do we do with this?

So what do you do with this?

What do you do when life hands you this wound, this grief and this sorrow that just feels so heavy?

Well, there's a couple of things you can do with it.

By the way, the great thinker and author Victor Frankel, who wrote extensively about his experience in the Holocaust, says this in between the stimulus when something happens to you, in between there and your response, which is probably over here, in between these two poles, is this vast space, and in this space is our power to choose our response.

So we're given this thing over here.

This thing happens to you, somebody hurts you, life sort of does a number on you.

You watch another video of somebody suffering immense violence overseas and you're given this thing.

In between receiving this and your response, which is way over here, there's this space, and Frankel will say that you can choose your response, or at least move towards a healthier response, and in that choice comes your growth and your freedom.

Frankel was he was convinced that the only thing that could not be taken from the Jews or any of the prisoners in the Holocaust, only that couldn't be taken from them was their ability to respond and how they chose to respond.

So, in between stimulus and our response, is this choice.

So what do we do?

Well, one option is you can just ignore this thing.

We love this in Minnesota.

If I just pretend it isn't there, it won't be there.

What do you tell?

What box?

I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't have a box.

Or like little kids, when they don't want you to, when they want to disappear, what do the little kids do?

They just do this.

Like dude, I can totally still see you.

You're not gone, you're right, you're just listen.

Well, but if I just ignore it, then it will go away and because somehow, conversely, if I name it, I'm like, oh, this is my box, then it'll make it real, like really real, and it's almost too real to know how to deal with it.

So I just ignore it.

But then what happens is it becomes an elephant, an elephant in the room, and maybe you've been around people like who have these elephants in the room, or maybe your family system is really built around an elephant in the room, and so everybody moves around this thing, knowing it's there, but nobody will say it's there, and everyone pretends there's no box.

But you have to move around this box and it's very precarious in some parts around the box.

Are you with me?

It's dangerous.

It becomes this elephant in the room.

You could ignore it.

That's one way to respond.

You also can suppress it.

Now, we men, generally speaking, we men love to do this and we're not going to let anything phase us.

Right, and we're not weak, we're strong.

So we take it, we shove it down.

Might even bury it, you know, but you know this.

I'm not saying that you don't, but when you do this, it always comes back.

It sort of springs back up.

I was hoping it would spring back up.

Okay, just pretend it's like a beach ball that you're shoving under water.

It always comes back.

In fact, it sometimes comes back with a vengeance when least expected.

The more you suppress things, the more inclined they are to rebound.

This is like a proven fact.

By the way, close your eyes for a second.

I promise I won't rob you.

I can't speak on behalf of Sonia, though.

Close your eyes.

She's the one you gotta watch out for, not me, by the way.

Now, whatever you do, do not picture an elephant.

Don't do it.

Don't picture an elephant.

Don't picture an elephant.

Do not picture an elephant.

Okay, open your eyes.

How many of you pictured an elephant?

They did a study.

They had people in a room that said, hey, don't picture.

And they listed a couple things I don't think about and then, over the course of one minute only one minute guess how many times the data showed that they actually thought about this thing Over the course of one minute.

In one minute, that's 60 seconds 40 times that people thought about that thing that they said don't think about why?

Because our bodies, like when we shove things down, our unconscious, our subconscious, our psyche's like yo, you gotta deal with this.

And they bring it back up and it rebounds and springs back and comes back even harder many times.

So you can't really suppress it.

Some of us and maybe this is a popular thing these days, I don't know we love to over-identify with this thing.

So we walk around like this is our badge of courage hey, how are you doing?

Hey, good to meet you.

Did you see my box?

Hey, hey, how are you?

This is my box, did you?

You wanna shake my box's hand?

This is my box, and not only does it become the thing I experienced or the thing that happened to me.

It becomes a part of who I am.

This is my identity.

I am my box.

Now, this is me and I cannot disassociate myself from this thing.

So, rather than a thing that happened or that I experienced in life, that has all kinds of consequences, no doubt I become the thing.

Here you see my box, here it is.

Another thing we do is not only do we over-identify, but we over-protect this thing.

So we don't talk about it out loud, like I already mentioned, but we wanna, like, safeguard ourselves all the way around.

There's this thing today and it's popular in many circles.

It's called the trigger warning and I understand the reasoning behind these trigger warnings.

It's this warning to say, hey, you're about to experience that could cause you some pain because of your past experiences, and no doubt.

But one of the unintended consequences of those is that we just never then face it.

We never encounter the thing because we just protect it and we treat it with satin gloves.

But that doesn't always help, because one of the only ways to face this thing and to deal with it is to name it and to talk about it at least a little bit and to address it, and you can't address it if it's wrapped in Saran wrap and you only touch it with satin gloves.

So over-protecting doesn't help much either.

Either One of my favorites is we can just numb ourselves out right next to it or holding it.

In this country we use more opioids than any other country in the entire world.

Did you know that?

Did I just go?

I'm back.

What do opioids do?

They numb pain.

Maybe alcohol is your thing that helps you numb the pain.

I'm not saying you shouldn't drink alcohol, but many of us do it to numb the pain.

If we're honest.

Maybe your thing is chocolate and eating enough chocolate makes you just feel numb to the pain and your grief.

Maybe you exercise all the time because it helps you deal with the pain Non-stop.

Is that my battery going dead?

Nope, we're good okay.

Maybe you worked non-stop.

That helps you to numb the pain.

Now here's the deal.

Some of these things are not addictive in nature, but not feeling pain is addictive for sure.

To be numb to pain is an addictive thing.

So many of you just try to numb our pain and not feel it.

But what if?

What if there was something better we could do with this thing, a way to move through life that would actually help us.

What if we could deal with it, name it, declare it and even hash it out with God?

Because here's the thing behind the thing from any of us who are religious type people, when I have this thing, there's at least a part of me as a Christian that's like hey, god, what's the deal?

Why did I get this?

Why would you allow this to happen to me?

And we all ask it.

So it's just underlying or subterranean, like hey, I have a beef with God, but I don't want to do with that either.

What do I do with this?

Well, david, I think a number of the Psalmists offer a model of prayer that I think can help.

Now, here's the reality.

So, disclaimer, many of you have one of these that's really difficult to unpack or to talk about and you might need professional help, and for that I'd say, get a counselor.

They're unbelievably helpful, something like this.

But many of us can at least start with this ancient model of lamenting, which is what David does.

David experiences a massive amount of grief and sorrow and loss in his life and he writes these laments Again.

A lament is a passionate expression of grief and sorrow.

Open your Bibles to Psalm chapter six.

It's on page four, 26.

I'm going to show you a couple of things and then I'll get out of your way.

You can go home and watch football.

So page 426.

I want to use this as a model for what we can do with our own grief and sorrow and loss and pain in our wounds, big or small, past or present, it doesn't matter Even in future ones.

This is a model for how we can, as people of faith, address this thing.

What do we do with this?

Number one notice, by the way, I figured who read our scripture earlier.

I wasn't, I don't know, but whoever read it, thank you.

They read Psalm six.

This whole Psalm is a lament.

Psalm David is passionately expressing his sorrow in grief.

You can hear the anguish in his voice.

Was it Missy Lodermy who read it?

Okay, but notice this.

Here's how the Psalmist starts, verse one oh Lord.

Notice who he's addressing.

Who is he addressing?

God.

He speaks right to God.

In doing so, he opens a conversation, a dialogue with the divine.

Oh God.

Then, right away, almost immediately after he begins in verse I think it's three, he has this complaint about an acute suffering.

David's been suffering and he complains to God about it.

This is what he says oh God, don't repute me in anger.

Then, in verse three, my soul actually we're going to go back up in verse two.

Be gracious, oh Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.

How's that for a nice cozy prayer?

My bones are shaking with terror, my soul is struck with terror, while you, oh Lord, how long?

In other words, why don't you do something, god?

How long are you going to sit there and do nothing?

My bones are in anguish.

I'm dying here and you're doing nothing.

Whoa, just so you know.

In the ancient world, nobody did this to the gods or the divine.

You never spoke to God like this.

And here's David who thinks he can just outwardly complain to God in this audacious, brazen manner.

Look at it again.

How long, oh God?

It's this thinly veiled accusation.

He's accusing the divine.

In the ancient world, no one did this, because if you did look out, the gods could have you and your lunch and your whole family.

But David does.

He complains to God.

But it's this bold assumption that God even cares.

Most ancients would never talk to God this way, because most ancients were like God doesn't give a crud about you.

Why would the divine God of the whole universe care about you.

We're in this ever-expanding universe, getting bigger all the time, and we're hurling through space in this tiny little rock and there you are, your measly little person in this measly little town in Minnesota.

Why would God care about you?

But David, in his prayers, assumes that God does care about him.

What an assumption that God would care about him and that God can be expected to do something.

Hey, god, do something.

How long do you consider and do nothing?

This is a bold move by David to assume that God cares and to expect God to do something.

Wake up, oh God.

Then he threatens God.

Look at verse five.

He says hey, look, he uses his praises as a bargaining chip with God.

Here it is.

Go ahead for me, gavin, maybe it's on the screen.

Hey, in death, oh God.

There's no remembrance of you.

Look at verse five.

This is awesome.

He says in death, no one will remember you In Sheol.

Sheol is the place of the dead In Sheol.

Who can give you praise Now?

In the ancient Hebrew culture I thought when you died you went into sort of this place of non-existence called the place of the dead Sheol, and you were an incentined being at that point, so you couldn't praise God, which was part of the fabric of being a Jew, is to praise God.

He said God, if I die which is going to happen because you're letting me just sort of dangle out here how can I praise you?

In other words, your glory, your divinity is based on my or like yeah, your glory is based on what I can offer you in praises.

And if I'm dead, if you let me die in anguish and suffer and sorrow, you won't be able to be praised.

What he's like, using his praises as a bargaining chip with God.

God, you better do something, because if I die, your glory will be diminished by the way, human death.

In this regard, david suggests that human death diminishes the glory of God.

I think, if we're honest, the fact that we die should, at least for a moment, cause us to like does that diminish the glory of God?

David thinks so If I die, your glory is lessened.

God, how can I praise you from Sheol, the place of the dead?

This Psalm pushes hard on God.

He's like, he like doesn't hold up on, he doesn't let back on anything.

In these most personal terms, david is honest.

Verse seven he says he complains.

Actually verse six I'm weary with my moaning.

Every night, I flood my bed with tears Maybe you've been there, drenched my couch with my weeping.

My eyes waste away because of my grief.

They grow weak because of all my foes.

I'm surrounded by my enemies.

Can you hear his anguish?

But he doesn't stop there.

Verse nine.

He says this the Lord, though, has heard my supplication.

The Lord accepts my prayer, this prayer.

God accepts this prayer.

He accepts it.

All my enemies shall be ashamed and struck with terror.

They shall turn back and, in a moment, be put to shame.

This is the lament an expression, a passion, an expression of grief and sorrow.

Did you know that laments make up this kind of prayer?

Makes up over half of all of the Psalms.

There's a ton of them.

They're known as the prayers of David and they express in this way this rage and anguish, their cries of rage from David to God.

And these prayers, they violate all the Christian rules of prayers.

If you didn't know this, notice how.

All of them there's many of them, you can look them up later.

They begin in this self-centered way like oh God, heal me, rescue me.

It's all about I and my salvation, and me and I and me.

What's going to happen to me and my enemies.

They all begin with me and I.

We were taught in a little Sunday school start your prayers about others or about God, but these all start with I and me.

What are you going to do about me?

Listen to me, look at me, god, my troubles, my salvation.

It's wildly self-centered.

And then he goes on in these like really impolite ways and all these different psalms to talk about God.

He accuses God on a number of occasions of abandonment.

How audacious.

Psalm 88.

Why, lord, do you reject me?

Why do you hide your face from me?

Why have you abandoned me, oh God?

He accuses God of murder.

How about this one from Psalm 22?

Dogs surround me, david, writes.

A pack of villains encircles me, they pierce my hands and my feet.

He accuses God of falling asleep on the job.

Even.

Why do you hide your face and forget our misery?

Why have you hidden your face from me, god?

Why do you fall asleep on the job?

What's the deal?

And then, on many occasions, he's had enough to just go away, god.

Here he tells God just to go away.

Hey, look away from me, god, just go away.

I may enjoy life again before I depart and I'm no more.

Just forget it, just go away.

God, he's also super un-Christian to his enemies.

The Psalmist writes lots of like vicious things that he wants to be done to his enemies.

How about this one?

This one's a little more tame, but David writes hey, you're unfailing love in it.

Silence my enemies, destroy all my foes from your servant.

He prays devoutly for terrible things to happen to his enemies.

There's even one somewhere he wants their kids to have their heads dashed against rocks.

This is David and his prayers.

These are wild prayers, by the way, but they're in the Bible.

Why are they in the Bible?

And there's so many of them?

And I wonder is our prayer life like that at all?

Or are we too afraid?

Are we afraid of what will happen if we name our thing or if we talk like that to God?

Or we're afraid to be honest with ourselves?

Even here's the deal the word Psalms in the Hebrew the word for Psalms is the word Tehalim.

Everyone say Tehalim.

Tehalim means praises.

So this whole book is a book of praises and the vast majority of the praises are lament Psalms that indict God, accuse God, blame God, tell God to go away.

These somehow are praises.

What Things are good?

What's good.

It's outrageous.

They outnumber the Thanksgiving Psalms by a large majority.

It's unbelievable how many there are of these lamenting Psalms.

It's as though this space in between the stimulus and our response, this space and what we do with it, is a precious space, and how we handle it speaks like, fundamentally, what it means to be a human that we have this grief and this anguish and this sorrow.

We all have it.

We've all been wounded and experienced a lot of pain.

What do we do with this stuff?

Yeah, well, you can at least lament and be honest, because lamenting somehow might begin the road or the journey towards healing.

So LNF Davis, who wrote a phenomenal book called oh, I forget it.

Now all of a sudden it's called something up there yeah, getting involved with God Awesome book, she's wonderful.

She says this when you lament in good faith, opening yourself to God honestly and fully and, by the way, that's where we oftentimes just don't go far enough in our prayer life Be honest, fully honest, like, honestly honest, like cut all the junk, just be honest.

I've said a thousand times I love AA because those men and women have lost the capacity to trick people anymore, most of them the ones that want healing.

Hey, I'm Ryan, I'm an alcoholic, I'm done hiding.

That's how church should be in our prayer life should be open with God and honest.

No matter what you have to say, he knows already anyway, so you might as well say it.

Then you're beginning to clear the way for praise.

See, somehow our laments can turn into praise if handled the right way, if we do the right thing.

By this, notice the psalmist where he begins, here's an end, there.

His view of God, of himself, and the situation, it's all changed.

So he opens in a certain way, but he ends in a different way.

He ends towards healing.

Here's the pattern, if you notice, by the way and I want you to practice this, by the way Also do we give out those seeds?

Yet Hold on, okay, hang tight.

I'm going to give you guys some wildflower seeds and I'll tell you why in a minute but at the end of your rows are a little piece of paper.

Everyone needs one of those, so pass them down.

I'm going to have you write your own lament, either today or tomorrow, or some day, or tomorrow or sometime down the road.

When you remember what I said, you can also pull out your phone and take a picture of this.

This is the pattern that these laments follow.

It's a formula, if you will and I've given this out to many people many times, to help them deal with.

What do you do with this?

Well, here's one thing you can do.

You can write a lament and turn it into a praise, so it begins with a petition.

David and the other psalmist, or lots of psalmist they begin with a petition to God.

Then there's a complaint.

They like air out their grievances to God.

I love it.

It's addressed to God.

One of the most beautiful things about Job is that Job complains, but he does it to God and God finds him righteous because of this.

It's like God isn't really afraid or offended.

Go ahead, complain away, but do it to God.

In doing so, there's an expression of trust and faith, like I know that God cares about me, so I'll complain to him.

I know he hears me, so I'll complain.

I know he can do something about it, so I'll complain.

In complaining, it's like an expression of trust and faith.

Complaining to God, I think it's a minute.

It's like God, I know you can help me, do something about this.

And then, lastly, it moves in this direction, or declaration of praise to God.

God, I know you've been faithful in my past, you've delivered me in the past and I praise you and thank you anyway.

That's what he writes at the end.

If you saw how it ended.

He writes the Lord has heard my supplication and the Lord accepts my prayer.

This is David's praise.

At the end, it moves towards praise.

This is how we navigate the world, as it should be, not as it is, because this, unfortunately I don't know how to explain it, but this is a part of the contract, our contract with life.

Life means this.

It's just the way that it is.

I don't know why, but the beauty and fragility of life go hand in hand.

They just do.

Inevitably, you or someone you know or that you love will be given this, and what do you do with it?

You got to deal with life as it is now, as it should be, and this is one way to at least start by writing a lament and being honest with God and with yourself and your friends around you, and talking about it, naming it.

Where are you, god?

Why are you sleeping?

Wake up and do something about this, because here's where you can find hope.

I believe In that declaration of faith and praise, and also Psalm 126 says this.

I love this.

This is what the Psalmist writes those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.

Your tears, your sorrows, this thing you can sow with joy.

You can sow it like it's a seed and you can go out weeping and carry these as a seed to sow, and if you do that, you can return with songs of joy.

That means there are healthy ways to handle your grief and your sorrow and there are unhealthy ways.

This is a healthy way.

You can plant your sorrows and your tears as though they were seeds, and I've got some seeds for you.

We're going to pass them on right now.

So go ahead and grab, if I can get my ushers to help me out, because we're going to take this box.

We're going to plant it like a seed.

Thank you, ushers.

Everyone needs one bag of seeds.

I planted some of my tears earlier and here, look at, they're growing already.

Ha ha ha.

So take one of these just to remember.

Or go home and plant these bad boys.

Turn this into a.

I love rituals.

I love them.

So pour these out, write your lament on that piece of paper and then pour these out into the ground and watch what happens when we lament and cry out to God and turn into praise and we refuse to stay in this mess.

But we don't suppress it or avoid it or numb out either.

We face it head on and direct our prayers to God.

Somehow God can take these things and turn them into something beautiful.

That's the gospel, isn't it?

So bring your seeds and grieve in a way that helps and they can be joy on the other side.

We're going to close in a song here, and I think we're going to pass an offering or pass globes and collect an offering.

All the offering money that we collect goes to helping this place run, and then we're going to, and then Sonia will come pray.

I want to say one final thing.

Thank you, ushers.

These are just a variety of wildflowers too, so plant them as a reminder.

Now here's the deal.

Oh, you're out.

Oh, anybody else need one?

Thank you, tim.

Anybody else need one?

Yeah, a couple.

You can grab two if you want.

If you're really sorrowful, grab two.

There is a joy to be had on the other side of grief, but you have to move through the grief.

You have to.

You can't avoid it.

If you avoid it, you circumvent your own growth.

Do you hear me?

You have to face it.

Go in there and find God in there.

I think he's found there.

This is why I think that I told you earlier if human death is the end of everything, then God's glory is diminished.

I think that's fundamentally true.

This is why it was important that God comes to earth as a human, suffers and dies in Jesus Christ and is planted in the ground like a seed.

And that isn't the end, though, because on Sunday we experience resurrection.

Jesus brings all the dead things back to life and check this out when he shows up.

I love this.

He shows up and my man Jesus, by the way, did experience a lot of this.

Read the Passion and he shows up and guess how they know it's him.

He's got these wounds in his hands and his feet and his side.

They're probably scars by now, but they don't go away.

They're not open wounds, as I said, but they're scars.

Those don't go away.

Jesus then walks around as a wounded healer, and his wounds perhaps make him a little bit more empathetic if that could be possible, that he already was pretty empathetic but our wounds don't always go away.

If we don't just cover them up, they become part of our story, but they become scars and not open.

Bleeding wounds and scars can tell the story and help others and we can experience resurrection.

And you and I can also become wounded healers by the power of the Spirit Central.

May you know that God hears your cries and your pleas and your anguish and your suffering.

He hears you.

And may you know that we should expect God to do something.

And in this in-between time, may we take our laments and offer them to God.

May we take our wounds and our sufferings and our pain and our losses and we plant them like seeds in the ground and we find joy on the other side.

Amen.