Good Afternoon!

How are you all feeling this fine Wednesday in late October? Are you prepared to feel sad? Strange question, huh?

If you are anything like I am, you prefer to be cheerful than sad. Waking up and peeking out the window to see what the weather may be like for the day, (hoping for clear skies) is a cheerful little morning habit. Some mornings when time and circumstance permit, I like to get my hot cup of coffee and walk out on the back deck and sit down to listen to the birds sing. Ah, beholding God glorious creation is cheerful indeed.

Among the Northern Mockingbirds and Chipping Sparrows and occasional Red-Bellied Woodpecker chirping and singing in the trees, I will hear another bird sing… the Mourning Dove. Oh, how sad it sounds; a type of lamentable cry that makes it easy to imagine that it feels lost and alone with no one (bird) who cares.

As rainbows are God’s reminder to us earthbound creatures that He’ll never flood the entire earth again (Genesis 9:16), could Mourning doves also have been commissioned to remind us of our next beatitude? Hmmm…

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

Has anyone here ever mourned over something or someone before? Perhaps you mourned over the death of a loved one. Perhaps you mourned over the lost opportunity to buy gold when it was cheap, or perhaps you recently mourned over the sad state of your beloved football team. Mourning is like being sad over something where the levee of hope has been washed away. In my mind, I think grief is like a cousin to mourning.

Let’s get a grip on the meaning of mourning. Indulge me to copy and paste from Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary…

Main Entry: mourn·ing

Pronunciation: \ˈmȯr-niŋ\

Function: noun

Date: 13th century

1 : the act of sorrowing

Doh! Okay… now we have to look at sorrowing…

Main Entry: ¹sor·row

Pronunciation: \ˈsär-(ˌ)ō, ˈsȯr-\

Function: noun

Date: before 12th century

1 : deep distress, sadness, or regret especially for the loss of someone or something loved

So we see that distress, sadness, and regret can cause one to mourn. I presume all of us have felt these emotions at some point in our lifetime thus far. I’m sure some of you even have a memory in mind now.

Okay, so Jesus tells us that the people who are mourning will be comforted. (This sounds so simple on the surface level.) But I also presume most of us have experienced mourning and Jesus was not around to comfort us. For example: Jesus never told me, “Oh Jim, the Redskins will be a good football team again someday… don’t despair. Here, take this warm cup of milk and drink it to calm your nerves, and you’ll soon fall into blissful sleep.” Ha! That may be comforting in the short term. But I’ll wake up in a couple of hours and the Redskins will not have magically changed. Frankly, the Redskins and every other sports team are but a passing fancy in this passing world.

Thus to make sense of this beatitude, we must leap to the spiritual side of things and call up another verse that speaks to such painful moments…

2^nd Corinthians 7:10
… godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Ahh, this is good! God is teaching us through Paul the different realities of grief! Notice there are two kinds of grief;
1. godly
2. worldly

Did you all know there are two kinds? Notice what they ultimately produce;
1. a repentance that leads to salvation without regret
2. death

So using the spiritual thinking cap you have on, which kind of grief do you suppose Jesus was referring to in the Beatitudes? The kind that leads to salvation… (hence, being “comforted”) ding ding!

Let us look again in the Bible (it’s a great habit) where God shows us through Hosea what “worldly grief” looks like…

Hosea 7:14
They (Israel) do not cry to Me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against Me.

In contrast, King David shows us his heart as he expresses godly grief…

Psalm 51:2-3
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

See the difference? There is the self-centered mourning over lost crops which shall pass away anyway and the God-centered mourning over violating His love which produces an earnest desire to be delivered from such ugly wicked thoughts, words, and deeds so as to no longer be a transgressor of such loving-kindness ever again.

So, as strange as this may sound, godly grief is a desirable thing. Some of our grandparents knew the sense behind this when they said, “You should be ashamed of yourself.” And here’s another seemingly strange thing… if your sins have hardened your heart and you don’t have guilt and shame over them anymore, consider asking God to help you sense it again. I personally know God does answer this prayer!

Finally, King David exemplified this beatitude… he mourned over his sins (see above), and in him was produced a repentance that lead him to salvation without regret…

 Psalm 32:3-5
For when I kept silent (concerning his sins), my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Is there any doubt King David was a blessed man? He certainly mourned and was comforted. Let us do likewise!

**Comments/ questions/ affirmations/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim