Review and Re-Center Around God
"Blessed are those who mourn" is, paradoxically, a more necessary message than "Rejoice in the Lord always," because there can be no true rejoicing until we have stopped running away from mourning.
~ Simon Tugwell, The Beatitudes
Review the Week
How do you handle situations that lead to mourning? Do you self-medicate, taking comfort in food, or alcohol, or drugs? Do you avoid thinking about it and distract yourself? Do you seek out the Lord our Healer? The Holy Spirit, the Great Comforter?
Maybe you seek comfort by living through created online personas, celebrities, or even through the lives of your own children?
Repent (if necessary)
If you have been self-medicating to handle pain, repent and ask God to come into the painful places and heal you.
Simply talking about it out loud can be a great option as well.
If you have been operating through distraction, then admit it and go back to God.
Think of it this way: If you refuse to recognize the pain, you miss out on the blessing Jesus describes in this beatitude about mourning.
Return (as necessary)
Ask God to bring healing to whatever hurts in you. Do it daily, day after day, just like any other coping mechanisms – until you find relief (see the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8).
Luke 18:1-8
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Some people turn to a bottle every day, some the computer, others food. Choose instead to turn to God daily. You may not do it well all the time, but do it anyway.
Micro-Meditation Scripture
Psalm 119:65-72 (Teth, 9th letter)
- Do good to your servant
according to your word, LORD. - Teach me knowledge and good judgment,
for I trust your commands. - Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I obey your word. - You are good, and what you do is good;
teach me your decrees. - Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart.
- Their hearts are callous and unfeeling,
but I delight in your law. - It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees. - The law from your mouth
is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
Micro-Meditation
Teaching or Command of God
Luke 10:26-28
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
~ Jesus
Jeremiah 31:3
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
Micro-Meditation
Pondering Point
The Psalmist contrasts his heart’s delightful obedience of God’s law with the “callous and unfeeling” heart of the arrogant.
How would your heart compare?