By: Deacon Renée Beyea (MDiv)
Today’s Old Testament reading begins with the Lord asking Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul?” But the question isn’t about how long Samuel will mourn; the chapter preceding implies he mourned until the day he died. The Lord doesn’t miraculously heal Samuel’s grief. Neither does he say, “Once you’ve worked through this, I’ll give you the next assignment.” What the Lord wants to know is if Samuel will allow his grief to hinder his obedience. It’s a compassionate question calculated to stir Samuel to action.
Grief is a process and a normal response to loss. Consider Samuel. He was obedient to God from a young age. He anointed, mentored, encouraged, rebuked and prayed for Saul, this tall, insecure young man, only to witness him reject the word of the Lord and the Lord reject Saul as king. Of course Samuel mourned. The problem is not with grief but with being stuck. We know many types of loss, and all have the potential to shackle us. Perhaps we grieve the death of a loved one or a child gone astray. Perhaps we mourn for lost jobs or for ministries that have never taken wing though we were obedient. We grieve for lost marriages, for lost dreams, for lost innocence. We mourn choices that cannot be unmade and consequences that cannot be undone even as we know the cleansing of forgiveness. We mourn the loss of health and the possibility we may never be the same this side of heaven.
When we find ourselves stuck, the Lord speaks to us from the tenderness of infinite love. “How long will you mourn?” If we confess and ask for help, our Savior looses the chains that bind us and strengthens us by His Spirit. We may still grieve or mourn, but we are no longer immobilized. Then He calls us to serve Him, sometimes in new and unexpected ways. For Samuel, his new calling was an unlikely young shepherd with a heart after God, but first he had to fill his horn and go.