Let not your hearts be troubled…
Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
As I write these lines we are preparing as a community for yet another funeral, this time for Lee Davis, the husband of Secondary School faculty member Vicki Davis.
The funeral is set for Friday at 2:30pm at Wildwood Church, but the mourning and lamenting is already churning in the lives of so many who knew him.
It is a truism that loss has a way of clarifying things, whether for good or for ill. Looking deeper, we come to see that in the face of the abyss we become more of who we were before the tragedy. We are forced in that moment to confront what, for many, can be a peace-shattering and life-changing experience.
There is an emptiness in loss that stubbornly defies filling and even seems to expand with each passing day. Our hearts become closed-in somehow, and our world shrinks as we turn inward in order to deal with the pain.
It is in the midst of this sort of reality that the words of John 14 resonate so powerfully, shaking us out of our morbidity and orienting us outward toward the only One who can fill the emptiness.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.John 14: 1, 27 ESV
It is crucial to note that these verses from John 14 come alive in the context of the promise of God’s Holy Spirit, coming to live within us as a Helper (comforter, advocate – v. 16, 26).
The word of God assures us and our experience declares that absent the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, there will surely be trouble in our hearts, and, most likely, we will be afraid.
Of course, to be honest, living with the Holy Spirit as a present reality in us does not exempt us from the pain of suffering and loss.
If anything, it intensifies it, for we find that the work of the Spirit in revealing Jesus Christ tenderizes our hearts and enables us to love more deeply.
Because of the fall of man and the entry of sin into the world, we humans come to understand that with more love comes more pain, a reality perhaps most perfectly realized in the searing agony of loss.
So where should we turn? To “Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12: 2a).
As Peter declared,
“To whom shall we go? For you (Jesus) have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know (through experience) that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69 ESV
Yet it seems that the greatest challenge in the midst of loss is to choose to turn toward Jesus and not away, and to direct our lament to Him.
This nonlinear process, which is often longer than we predict, is the only pathway that actually can lead us to a better understanding of who Jesus really is, and who we really are because of Him.
So as we gather on Friday, let us remember this: Jesus knows and feels our pain, has experienced our suffering, and has emerged victorious in the face of death.
In a similar way, Lee Davis has already emerged victorious, and he is even now dancing at the feet of his beloved Savior. And, gratefully, so can we.
In fact, I urge you to stop right now and consider Jesus Christ as the answer to all of your questions and the true object of all of your desires. For without Him, we are destined to a life forever divorced from His presence.
In closing, I pray that as we walk together throughout this year we would all come to know and love this Jesus, and to be overmastered and consumed by His inexhaustible love.
Now may God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them, receive all of the glory as we continue to move step by step toward becoming a truly extraordinary school, for the greater glory of God.
For CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom