Buttons popped.
Zippers crept, stuck halfway.
Rumpled pile to donate.
Bags overflowing.
Stinging tears.
Overflowing.
Piled on illnesses and meds.
Bed-ridden sedentary.
Wrecked GI.
Slowed into a new and bigger body.
“My clothes don’t fit. None. What will I wear this spring and summer?”
Grief.
Mourning losses.
Piled, surrounded.
Health, “beauty,” comfort, finances.
Comfort in loss
Father, are these losses too tiny to grieve?
Is my “bigness” too tiny to mourn?
Mounds of clothes.
Representing overwhelming, heaped sorrows.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3 ESV).
All griefs matter to You, my merciful Father and God of all comfort. Thank You. Blessed be Your name, Lord.
Man of sorrows, what a name…1
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Heb. 5:7 ESV).
Comfort, in tears over tiny needs and losses
Tears pour out my need to You.
Like Jesus.
Large and tiny.
All, suffering upon suffering.
I need Jesus, the Son of God, the spotless Lamb of God, my Good Shepherd, my living water, my hope.
…for the Son of God, who came
Guilty, vile, and helpless, we;
spotless Lamb of God was he…
I need God who “comforts the downcast” (2 Cor. 7:6 ESV).
God “who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Cor. 1:4 ESV).
Tiny loss of clothes.
It is indeed…ongoing affliction.
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26 ESV).
Help me, Comforter, as I die to self
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4 ESV).
Tiny death of self.
Tiny death of old self-identity.
Death of idolatries.
My beloved Savior, on the cross.
“For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor. 1:5 ESV).
Full atonement! Can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Losses comforted, life anew.
Eternal life.
Now and forever, comfort.
Life abundant in dying to self.
Good hope through grace.
Undeserved, unearned, free gift.
Grace in my affliction. Grace in my union with Christ.
Gift received—comfort in sorrow.
Resurrected, reclaimed, redeemed, beloved in Christ, my portion, my strength in need.
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Thess. 2:16-17 ESV).
…ruined sinners to reclaim:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
“This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life” (Ps. 119:50 ESV).
Help me look ahead with hope, my Comforter, to comfort others in my new body
“so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:4 ESV).
Please help me to care-fully choose new clothes for my new body.
Guide me with Your rod and staff.
When tears sting anew.
Comforting grace upon grace.
Into suffering upon suffering.
Comforted and carried. Loved. All the way home. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
“Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant” (Ps. 119:76 ESV).
“Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Mt. 6:25 ESV)
When he comes, our glorious King,
all his ransomed home to bring…
…then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
“Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow” (Jer. 31:13 ESV).
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4 ESV).
In the name of our glorious Lord and King, Jesus Christ, amen.
DID YOU KNOW:
Resetting and reactivating our body and brain’s neural functions happen by simply “imagining the possibility of positive future events.”2 Amazing! When we experience the many losses of suffering with chronic illness, focusing on our sure and future hope as believers in Christ could then be our God’s comforting, strengthening, and healing work in our bodies and emotions as well!
PODCAST TIPS:
This music therapy-inspired podcast focuses us right there while calming our body’s pains. As hymns and Scripture turn our minds to our eternal hope in Christ, let’s lament our losses to Him and ask our Comforter for help as our minds and bodies calm.
Use noise-canceling headphones to eliminate distractions. Close your eyes. Place your body comfortably, ideally lying flat, with your knees supported by a pillow. Turn the volume as low as you can hear it.
Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.
As you breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.
The beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about eight heats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the hymns in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.
Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and heal the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.
I’m joining you! I NEED this! Please email me your feedback (and favorite hymns), and I will tweak our podcasts accordingly!
“‘Man of Sorrows,’ What a Name,” Bliss, P. P. (1875)
Korb, A. (2015). The upward spiral: Using neuroscience to reverse the course of depression, one small change at a time. New Harbinger Publications, p. 61.
Comfort in losses of chronic illness and pain