Blue Christmas
Notes
Transcript
Grief in a Festive Season
Grief in a Festive Season
5min
Needful and timely topic
Hoover Dam: hold back the waters to build the structure, make the inevitable useful
Message for many who struggle with not knowing what to do with negative emotions.
kids playing with play-dough: all the bits get incorporated into the pure lump
Biblical solution: Lament
Barriers
Barriers
5min
cultural expectations: men don’t cry, snap out of it, be strong for the family, tears are weakness
Ignorance: we don’t know what lament is. we have no example to follow, so we have to make it up as we go, and we end up pulling from the world around us
Biblical illiteracy: we don’t know God’s word and haven’t fully explored His character, so we don’t know where to run, and we don’t know how to fall into His arms.
Afraid to be honest with God. Don’t know how to honestly express frustration with God’s permissive will without being dishonoring or disrespectful
What is Lament?
What is Lament?
20min- thru “Trust”
ref: Dark Clouds…Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop
“A prayer in pain that leads to trust.”
Turn
Complain
Ask
Trust
Turn
Turn
Psalm 77:1–2 “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.”
NLT
I cry out to God; yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me! When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help.
Complaint
Complaint
Psalm 77:3–6 “When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search:”
NLT
You don’t let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray! I think of the good old days, long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
compaints are not culs-de-sac of sorrow, but bridges that lead to God’s character
It is OK to bring your questions (and frustrations), and to acknowledge how you actually feel
be honest
Don’t JUST complain. Don’t get stuck!
Ask
Ask
Psalm 77:7–9 ““Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah”
NLT
Has the Lord rejected me forever?
Will he never again be kind to me?
Is his unfailing love gone forever?
Have his promises permanently failed?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he slammed the door on his compassion?
“When you are happy, so happy you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels— welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
Make Requests of God (but don’t make a god of your requests)
(from the Psalms)- arise, help me, remember your promise, do justice, forget my sins, restore me, talk to me, listen to me, teach me, vindicate me
Make Requests of God (but don’t make a god of your requests)
Trust
Trust
Pivot Point- Then/Yet= Hope
Psalm 77:10 “Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.””
NLT
Psalm 77:11–15 “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah”
All the flags we’ve been planting
Trust is “active patience”
give God some credit for His abilities and will.
open your hand
trust is a choice:
I will trust in your steadfast love
my heart will (one day) rejoice in your salvation (deliverance)
I will sing unto the Lord
Tell
Tell
5-10min
Part 1
Psalm 77:16–20 “When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
Part 2
Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”