What will get you through?
In the midst of Holy Week 2023, there have been many events that have given me pause. This morning I read a wonderfully written blog by Mary Nolte entitled: “Where is Your Faith? — Steady Rain, Surging Storm (Part 1) How did you survive the death of a child?”
To learn more about this author and her story please go to Home | Consider the Morning.
In the middle of her article she tackled this question:
So, when I am asked what got me through the death of my child, the only answer I can give is, “It was my theology, what I believed about God.”
I have heard people say that they do not like theology, and I understand that. I have seen men tear one another apart in the name of theology, but do not let the sinfulness of man rob you of the joy of Christ. Theology is a lifeline to the heart that wants to die of grief. It is oxygen to the drowning soul. It is the anchor in the storm. For the waves of grief do not end this side of heaven. I still feel their rippling effects- at every birthday, on the day she would have gotten her driver’s license or graduated high school. Every ripple rocks the soul a little. I struggled with writing this blog so close to Easter. Why would I write about death when the Christian world bursts forth with life? Because the resurrection is the hope we have in the face of death. It is the refrain of our worship. As Matt Papa writes,
Come behold the wondrous mystery
Slain by death, the God of life
But no grave could e'er restrain Him
Praise the Lord; He is alive
What a foretaste of deliverance
How unwavering our hope
Christ in power resurrected
As we will be when He comes
When the storms of life assail my soul and waves of grief threaten to overtake me, it is in the resurrection of Christ that I find a hope that never wavers. As we clung to the lifeless form of our child, it was that “foretaste of deliverance” that made us finally able to stand up and step out of that room and say, “She is not here. She is with the Father, and one day, we will see her again.”
Theology is the fortitude that brought us to worship at the graveside of our daughter.
As I think about my own life story and the difficult road I have traveled. When I think about becoming a Christian mid-life. When I think about the seeds I sowed in my 20’s that came up as very bad fruit in my 30’s. I know 1.) God is faithful and stealing from the Mary Nolte’s writtings above 2.) Theology is a lifeline to the heart that wants to die of grief. It is oxygen to the drowning soul. It is the anchor in the storm.
I know too many people personally who have no lifeline. I know too many people w ho are gasping for breathe and trying to keep their head above water. I know too many people being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Ephesians 4:14 ESV
What will get you through?
