I woke up to this song this morning, so I thought I would share, as it was pertinent to something I pondered/learned yesterday. I learned about sitting shiva. As the story of Job unfolds, he has three friends to come to him, and at first, they all sit together in silence for a week. I just finished reading John Ortberg’s “God is Closer than You Think,” and in it, he says, “The friends’ love is so strong, their grief is so great, that they plan to sit next to him and take on his anguish. Have you ever been so sick that when someone came to visit, they took one look at you and burst into tears? There’s no use pretending.” He asks the reader to imagine sitting with someone in silence for seven days. Then he says, “This was such a powerful act that it became a part of Jewish life.” Siting sivas means sitting sevens. He goes on to say that this is perhaps the greatest example in Scripture of the command to “mourn with those who mourn.” I want to be the kind of person who mourns with others this way.
Here’s the song, “Pray you Through” by Sixteen Cities
What are you mourning? Have you told someone your pain and let them mourn with you?
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