Thoughts From A Mourning Father

All Bible passages are from Bible Gateway.

[Background Information to give context]

Friday March 10, 2023 I was working in my office towards the end of the day thinking about what I wanted to get done on the weekend when my phone rang from my son-in-law. "Dad, Jaron is in cardiac arrest and mom is performing CPR, the Ambulance is on the way."

Jaron we assume had an allergic reaction to the flour dust, as my wife was grinding wheat at the time. They got his heart started back up at the hospital, but too much time had passed. On March 12 he was declared dead due to swelling of the brain from lack of oxygen.

Sudden, tragic, unexpected are all common terms used from those of us who have lost a child. My hope is that this lesson will encourage others who may be going through a severe trial. I hope and pray that no one else will have to go through this, but I know better. It is all too common and if you pastor a congregation, you will deal with this at some point. Hopefully my few words here will help. Now to the lesson.

INTRODUCTION

Scripture is full of examples of life as being a path. Probably the most famous of these passages is the 23 Psalm.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake."

In Proverbs King Solomon is encouraging his son to walk in the path of wisdom and avoid the path of folly. We see the same concept in Matthew 7:13-14

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

We often get the misconception that if we are on the narrow path and we are following the path of wisdom then we will avoid the hardships of this life. As I look at the examples given to us of Abraham, Moses, Job, Jeremiah, Daniel and on and on you certainly do not see this as being true. As Christians we are foreigners living in a foreign land and that certainly means that in this land we are going to have testing, trials and hardship.

As you all know, the Miller family has gone through some severe testing lately. One of those heart wrenching experiences that no one should ever have to go through, but many (regardless of which path they are on) are still called to go through as we live on this fallen planet named Earth.

Today I want to give you all some encouragement from my thoughts as I am going through the mourning process. I’ve titled my lesson today “Thoughts From a Mourning Father.”

WHEN YOUR WORLD STOPS BUT THE REST OF THE WORLD KEEPS MOVING ON

YOUR WORLD STOPS

The first observation may seem pretty obvious, but is true and that is that your world comes to a complete screeching stop. Work doesn’t cross your mind, neither does food, you don’t even recognize the passage of time. Sleep? What is that! Time just stops! It reminds me of Joshua, in Joshua Chapter 10, when the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel and Joshua prays that the sun and moon stop and the Lord stopped it for about a whole day. Everything in your life stops.

THE WORLD KEEPS MOVING ON

Your world stops, but you observe that the world around you is still moving on. The sun is still rising in the east and setting in the west. People still wake up get dressed and head off to work. The ants still move to and fro. Businesses still open their doors for business. The birds are still chirping in the trees. Why? Why God? Don’t they realize that tragedy has struck? Shouldn’t the sun stop and mourn with me?

The world continuing to move is actually a good thing. First, it is a reminder that eventually, you will need to restart your world and get moving once again. Ecclesiastes 3 is the “There is a time for everything” passage.

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

There is a time to mourn and a time to rejoice. But not everyone is on the same time schedule. How depressing it would be if everyone hit the time of mourning at the same time! Where would be the support network to help hold you up during the time of trial?