My best friend growing up lost his mother yesterday.  It hits close to home because it makes me think of what it would be like to lose my own.  not sure how to deal with my feelings. All I can say is that it was good to cry with him.  So I am ripping this quote off from a blog post on lamenting,   it is by eugene peterson:

 It is also necessary as a witness, a Jesus-witness to the men and women who are trying to live a life that avoids suffering at all costs, including the cost of their own souls.  For at least one reason why people are uncomfortable with tears and the sight of suffering is that it is a blasphemous assault on their precariously maintained  . . spirituality of the pursuit of happiness.  They want to avoid evidence that things are not right with the world as it is—without Jesus (and Job, David, and Jeremiah), without love, without faith, without sacrifice.  It is a lot easier to keep the American faith if they don’t have to look into the face of suffering, if they don’t have to listen to our laments, if they don’t have to deal with our tears.  
    So learning the language of lament is not only necessary to restore Christian dignity to suffering and repentance and death, it is necessary to provide a Christian witness to a world that has no language for and is therefore oblivious to the glories of wilderness and cross.

 I kind of feel like wilderness this far from home when loved ones are hurting. It is my prayer that each of you will know the saving grace that is in Christ Jesus.  Lord thanks for being the healing in our midst.

love