Though we are to follow Jesus’ example and mourn as He did over sin and death, we are not to mourn as those who are despairing and hopeless. For through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have boundless hope – hope that is not some mystical feeling, but hope that is more like a promise or commitment. We can trust that those who died in Christ will rise again. And since only God knows the heart, we can hope that those who did not die in Christ will have turned to God in the last possible moment. All of life and death is in God’s hands.


The psalmists teach us how to mourn as well. Though they express their deepest, rawest emotions to God without restraint, in the end of each psalm, they reassert what they know about God. He is worthy to be praised. He will do what He has promised. This life is not all that there is. And so we are to grieve, but with a long-distance view of what is to come. When that seems too hard, just like the psalmists, we can ask God to help us. He will be faithful to your cry.