You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.
Sing to the Lord, O you His godly ones!
Give thanks at the mention of His holy name!
For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may endure for a night,
but a shout of joy comes in the morning.
Psalms 30:3-5
There’s a song lyric that says, “I wasn’t made to be tending a grave, I was called by name
born and raised back to life again, I was made for more.”
Oh, how I wrestled with that over past months. I was the grave. My womb, the tomb. My grief was deep. There is such a thing as “good grief.” This kind of grief allows you to bear your soul while moving you forward to hope. The heart needs lament. It needs to be honest and real. It needs to weep.
But it isn’t meant to live there.
There is another grief
There is another type of grief where you just stay stuck for a while, and I’ve experienced both. The psalmist says it well: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 42:11
Yes, our hearts need lament, but we’re not meant to stay there— we are meant to get back up again.
I don’t think that means that grief goes away. But I do think it means it can’t be the thing that holds us. That kind of anchor weighs us down and holds us back. It keeps our fists clenched. But we can’t grasp the hem of His garment if we white-knuckle our way through pain. Even our physical pain is intensified when we tighten up against it.
You are made for more
We are meant to keep breathing, open hands reaching for the Father, entrusting our hurts and our hearts to Him.
We are made to grow through our grief. Good grief propels us toward hope. Hope is the anchor our souls need.
Weeping is real. It endures for a while. But so do we. We endure by a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, by the hope that enters into our pain, where Jesus has gone before us and meets us there (Hebrews 6:19-20).
Yes, weeping is real. But, so is the joy! Joy comes when we hold onto hope!
“I wasn’t made to be tending a grave, I was called by name, born and raised back to life again, I was made for more,” (Made for More, by Josh Baldwin).
Yes, I was made for more! I was made to hope! My heart was made to sing again!
You’re good, God. You’re so good. And You get all my praise!
