Episode 61: When It's Time to Get Back Up
It’s biblical to take time to lament and mourn things that are truly painful, but the good news is there’s also a time to get back up! You know you’re spending too much time in a dark place emotionally when you feel trapped by the pain. Pain leaves scars. But we don’t want to find ourselves picking at our scars to make them bleed. God empowers us to get back up after we’ve been crushed by the blows of life or the fall-out of our own actions.
In I Samuel 16 we see that Saul is grieving over the fact that the king he had anointed over Israel, Saul, was ultimately rejected by God due to Saul’s repeated disobedience. We see God being gracious to Samuel and letting him mourn over this heartbreaking situation. However, at a certain point, God speaks to him saying, “How long will you grieve this decision?” God instructs him to fill his horn with new oil because He’s got someone new for Samuel to anoint. One man’s failure didn’t stop the future that God had for His people.
In this story we learn a few things about grief:
Grief doesn’t discriminate! Samuel is a powerful man of God, raised since birth to hear and respond to the voice of God. Yet when faced with a heartbreaking reality, he gets stuck in a period of prolonged mourning.
Grief changes YOU but doesn’t change your situation. Samuel grieved for years over this decision, many scholars believed he mourned for up to 10 years after Saul gets rejected as King. However, Samuel’s grief didn’t change the outcome one bit. He doesn’t see a way out until God provides one. He learned a new level of trust as he grieved because only God could give him a new plan and hope.
Prolonged grief can put you into paralysis. At some point, we have to “Be on our way…” as God instructed Samuel. If we’re not careful, the loss of a loved one or the grief that we carry in our hearts from a tragic situation will keep us stuck from walking in the purpose that God has for our lives. Samuel had to make the decision that what happened was horrible, it was heartbreaking, but it was over. Though he probably never “got over it,” he had to make the decision to get back up again.
When dealing with grief, it’s important to remember:
Your present season may look different than your past season…and that’s ok! David didn’t look like Saul—and that’s exactly what God intended. Samuel would have missed the man God wanted as Israel’s new king if he was looking for another Saul.
Let purpose lead you rather than your pain. God will give you direction and help when you focus on your new purpose rather than your past pain.
Jesus will sit with you in your grief and sustain you through it. He is a real and present help both in the grief and in the delivering out of grief. He understands grief, sorrow, and suffering more than any human on earth.
Gutsy Faith Challenge: What have you been stuck grieving? What assignment from God are you missing because you’re not getting back up?
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