God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Wailing: Pregnant with Hope
Countdown to God’s Healing: I’m excited to announce that BMH Books will release my fifth book in May. To read a sample section of God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting click here. To pre-order your autographed copy at 30% off, visit here. As we countdown to the release, I’ll be sharing periodic excerpts, such as today’s post: Wailing: Pregnant with Hope.
A Time God
When we cry out to God, He promises His comfort. However, He does not promise “quick answers.” He is a “time God.” He does not come before time. He does not come after time. He comes at just the right time. And . . . He comes in His way for His glory and our good.
When His timing and our timing are light years apart; we wait. We resist the temptation to regroup and to fix things on our own. But let’s be honest, that brings more pain. We’re then tempted to deaden the pain we feel as we wait for God’s healing hope. That’s why in stage six of the grieving/growth process we move from deadening our pain to wailing: groaning with hope.
Wailing: Staying Alive to Life When It Crushes You to Death
So what are we supposed to do? We wail. It is through wailing that we stay alive to life even when it tries to crush us to death. By wailing, I don’t mean weeping as in the candor, complaint, or cry of sustaining, though weeping often accompanies wailing.
Wailing is longing fervently for heaven and living passionately for God and others while still on earth. Paul personifies wailing in Philippians 1:23-25.
“I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of your for your progress and joy in the faith.”
Paul neither deadens his longing for heaven nor minimizes his calling on earth. Wailing is longing, hungering, thirsting, and wanting what is legitimate, what is promised, but what we do not have. It is grieving the “not yet” without giving up on the “now.” In wailing, I groan, “I wanna’ go home. This world is so messed up. I ache for Paradise. But I’m pulling weeds until the day I die!”
Biblical Wailing Samplers: How to Be a Nike Christian
Is wailing a biblical response to our suffering? Where does God tell us to long fervently for heaven and live passionately for God and others while still on earth? What Scriptures teach us how to groan with hope? Consider Romans 8:18-25 and its support for wailing as part of God’s plan for responding to suffering.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
Designed for Paradise, we live in a desert. No wonder we are thirsty. No wonder we groan for heaven. We might picture the big picture like this:
Paradise: “Now!” Full
Desert: “No!” Empty
Thirst: “Not Yet!” Groaning
Everything was very good and completely satisfying in Paradise. God gifted Adam and Eve with all they needed and so much more. They were full. Then, because they refused to rest in God’s fullness, they were barricaded from the Garden, sent roaming east of Eden into the desert. Instead of the happy cry of “Now! All my needs are met now!” they now cry, “No! We are empty. Thirsty. Hungry.”
Created for Paradise and living in a desert, they and their offspring become thirsty. Our new cry is “Not yet!” We say, “I want what I want and I want it now.” God says, “I promise you that I will quench all your legitimate thirsts, but not yet.”
Thriving
And what’s the result? Weak, mournful surviving? No way! The result is thriving. In Romans 8:28-39, Paul insists that even in the midst of trouble, hardship, persecution, and suffering, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He teaches that in all our suffering we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us so.
“More than conquerors” comes from the Greek word nikao from which we gain our word “Nike”—victors, winners, Olympic champions. Wailing empowers us to long ardently for heaven and to live victoriously on earth. Wailing moves us from victims to victors in Christ.
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The temptation when life beats us down is to refuse to face life anymore. We barely survive, rather than victoriously thrive. How can we victoriously thrive?
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