The Thing About Words

Words are very powerful things.  With our words we can build up others, or we can tear them down.  In a moment of anger, we can loose our words like of volley of arrows piercing everyone in our sights.  In a moment of passion, we can speak tender words that radiate with such intense heat that hearts are set ablaze.  In a moment of joy, we can set forth words in a river of praise and adoration.

Yet in other moments, words fail.  At a moment of deep loss, words often rest limp on the tongue. They may lodge in the throat with such violent opposition to being spoken that it feels as if we are being choked.  They may rest heavily at the bottom of our hearts threatening to drive it deep down within us.

In moments like these, words fail to convey the anguish we feel in a way that seems adequate.  When grief is at its heaviest, there really are no words to describe it.  Words also fail to comfort at moments like this. Well aimed words, well honed by frequent use, fall short of the mark.  A grieving heart doesn't want words, it wants relief.

So in times of grief, pack up your cliches, put away your fortune cookie proverbs, and stop shooting from the hip.  Only God's Word, applied by his Spirit, has the power to heal.  If we forget that, we're little more than clanging cymbals in ears of the grieving.

In the times where our words fail, it is time to weep with those who weep.  It is time to gather around them and minister to their need.  As we minister to them, we will speak to them God's Word.  We will remind them what God has said through the Scripture.  We will urge them to endure to the end.  We will mourn this evil world with them, even as we long for the new world that is coming.  For a day is coming, when our King will wipe the tears from our eyes.  We know this because his Word never fails.