July 16 | Application (‘Good Mourning’)

By David Faust 

One letter makes all the difference. What a contrast between the words morning and mourning! When morning arrives, sunrise welcomes a new day, a fresh start, and new opportunities. Mourning, though, sounds like sunset. It means darkness is approaching or already has arrived.   

Mourning is an extended period of sorrow and grief. It’s a time for letting go, saying goodbye, and feeling the pain of separation.   

ARE YOU A MOURNING PERSON? 

Jeremiah predicted dire consequences for the Jews. Because of their unfaithfulness, they would endure decades of Babylonian exile—an extended period of mourning. But God’s loving-kindness would never give up on them. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” the Lord said, and “I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). Restoration and renewal were ahead, a time when “young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well” (v. 13). 

Have you ever endured an extended time of sorrow and depression? How should you respond when mourning comes? 

Don’t think you can avoid it. Job was right: We are “born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Pain, loss, and sorrow eventually come our way. Peter wrote, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). 

Don’t minimize it. God doesn’t trivialize our sorrows. He takes them so seriously that his beloved Son “took up our pain and bore our suffering” (Isaiah 53:4). In my own experiences with mourning, I have found that if I lean into my sorrow, I come out of it faster than if I try to ignore and suppress it. 

Don’t refuse to talk about it. Shakespeare wrote, “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”  

Don’t compare one person’s grief with another’s. “Each heart knows its own bitterness” (Proverbs 14:10). The suffering of others may look mild, but you aren’t walking in their shoes. Another piece of ancient wisdom says, “Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on a wound, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart” (Proverbs 25:20). If you are too casual about someone’s heavy heart, you will add to their burden instead of easing their pain.  

Don’t assume it will last forever. Jeremiah predicted the Lord would turn his people’s “mourning into gladness” and “give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow” (Jeremiah 31:13). Just as mourning means something deeper than merely being sad, gladness means something deeper than merely being happy. Circumstances can make us happy, but only the Lord can make us glad. Genuine gladness comes when our burden of guilt has been removed and our sense of purpose has been restored. Aren’t you glad that God promises to forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more (v. 34)? In this new covenant reality, with God’s law written on our hearts, we get a taste of heaven’s glory where the Lord will wipe every tear from our eyes. 

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), He can change mourning into morning, turning a long dark night into a bright new day.  

Personal Challenge: When have you gone through a season of mourning (extended sorrow or grief) in your own life? What helped you through it? What did you learn from it? If you are now in a time of mourning, consider talking about it with a trusted friend or a Christian counselor.