The Mourner's Club
There's a club called by many names. Club members can be called mourners, parents of angels, widows and widowers, and countless other names. It's a group of people who get it, who have felt some of the deepest emotional pain there is to feel, and who understand what it's like. This kind of pain is not a normal level of pain. Everyone has lost something, and most people have lost someone. But not every loss results in agony like this. It's a pain that changes one's life, that tears a hole in one's heart and leaves it bleeding on the floor. Those in that club feel like outsiders, aliens in groups wherein they stand alone. Those who have never felt that kind of pain have a hard time knowing what to say and what not to say to club members.
Those in the club appreciate the empathy found among fellow travellers of those dark roads, but we would never wish club membership on anyone because the dues are too high. Once one has joined that club, we often find it surprising how many fellow travellers there are. We run into them in the grocery store, in our church groups, online, everywhere. We suddenly discover we are not alone.
Jesus Christ:
There is one Traveller who can bring understanding, empathy, and healing to all of us. He has suffered greater levels of pain than we could ever imagine, and all for love, all so He could understand what we suffer. He has taken upon himself all of our pains, not just our sins. He chose to become a fellow traveller, so He could heal us and help us through the worse of our agony. Our hearts don't have to stay broken. The wound does not have to continue to bleed. We will never be what we once were, but we are somehow stronger than we were before because He has walked with us, strengthened us, taught us how to strengthen and love others. At one point or another, most people on this earth will join this club. We can choose to either wallow in the pain, focusing on our isolation, or we can seek the healing offered by the Fellow Traveller who loves us all more than words can say. We can choose to be weighed down or lifted up by our pain, crushed or refined. He is there for us. But it is up to us whether or not to reach out, to pray, to bring his Spirit in our lives and be healed.
