The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.   Isaiah 50:4

AS a pastor, I look forward each year to time for personal renewal following the busy Lent and Easter season. That year on Easter Monday, I was on vacation when I heard that one of our members had taken his life. I was devastated.

I began to think about the Lenten story we had just lived through, especially the time between Palm Sunday and Easter. Jesus heard the hosannas but knew something very different was in store for him. In our lives, however, we never know what is around the next corner. We only know that we can trust God to help us cope with the unexpected, the shattering times in our lives.  The day of the funeral was very difficult. I prayed that the grieving people sitting in the congregation, would hear God’s word along with me, listening “like one being taught.” For even in the face of death, in God we can find help and comfort.