You don’t always have to talk people out of pain, grieving, hurting. It’s like if there’s some humanity that needs to be had, then it’ll be had. I grew up sometimes thinking that if somebody just needed to go through something that somehow they were siding with the devil or they didn’t love God enough or they weren’t obeying God or they were being a carnal Christian, or they weren’t being spiritual enough.
But I think about in Romans in the Bible where we are told to “weep with those who weep” and the theme in the New Testament of just walking with one another and encouraging one another – there’s a recognition of some humanity that might be had.
Not that you’re defined by your challenges but understanding that there’s still some things that somebody may need to walk through. Its a walk. But people won’t let you just walk. Just walk it out. They want to spiritualize you out of your walk.
Consider the number of times “do not fear” is said in the Bible. There’s a recognition of humanity, and an urging towards Christ, an urging towards love. And sometimes in a response to that urging, you may just need to go “through” something to clear out the clutter, so clarity will be had of this unutterable joy, freedom, this boundless life of Christ bursting on.