Mourning, It's A Good Thing!

Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

This has been a horse sized pill of a verse for me all of my life. How on earth could mourning be a blessing?

I think the first time I truly mourned was my freshman year in high school. Two girls who were in my sister's class (one year ahead of me in school), had been killed in a car accident. Another person who died from the crash was one of my friends sister. I mourned mostly for
the people who they left behind, who loved them and were torn apart by their death. This was an incredibly painful time. I didn't think any of us mourners were blessed.

I have never really understood this verse in the Bible and have only heard it explained one way. The way that I have heard it to be interpreted was that we are blessed when we mourn over our sin; when we have a repentant heart. I would agree with this.

I have been letting this verse roll around in my head for about a week now. How could it be that I would be blessed by mourning? Well, I know that I mourn over something that I have lost. A few things I have mourned over: I have mourned over family members that have died, I have mourned due to a young broken heart, I have mourned over foolish thinking that lead to sinful actions, I have mourned for other people's loss. How have these brought blessing to me?

What I could think of is that when we mourn we hurt, cry, and grieve. There is a letting go that happens when we mourn. We try and purge out our sorrow along with being brave enough to touch it and see just how deep the hurt is. When I mourn I realize how frail and needy I am. I realize my deepest needs; to be loved, cared about and to have people I love in my life. When I mourn I may be realizing my mistakes and wishing that I had done things differently, wishing that I had done them better. Mourning is very humbling. Mourning has shown me that the very fact that I have a deep, deep need in MY life, that everyone around me shares the desire to have their deep, deep needs met too. Mourning makes me really, really human and realize that everyone around me is too.

When I slowly come out of the depths of mourning and back into the land of the living, I have a sense of clarity of where I'm at in life and what I need. When I mourn I cry out to God and he proves himself faithful over and over again. He is my comforter. My relationship with him is deeper because I have been humbled and am aware that I have need and that he is the one to meet my needs. This relationship with the almighty God is my blessing. The mourning is a bridge that takes me from my everyday good life to the very heart and hand of God.

After a time of mourning, I seem to grow more compassionate. My heart sees the hurts and needs of others in a new light and I have a ready had to reach out because I have been there. I am more honest about life, how it can kick you in the stomach, and how God can take your hand and lift you up and heal you. I want to share with other people how great my God is. I want to be able to share how I am fragile, to be transparent so that others can be comfortable to share their mourning stories with me. My hearts desire is to encourage others and show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes, mourning isn't fun, it's one of the worst feelings and experiences of life. But just as a seed has to die underground before it can sprout and grow to bear fruit, it seems that we must mourn to understand where our true blessings lie.