Nights of Weeping

This is a short excerpt from my latest book Weeping for a Night. I just finished editing the rough draft and will send it on to the publisher. I hope it will be released around the first of the year. I am using all the money from book sales to go toward paying off the remaining debt on the hospital in Copan Ruinas Honduras.

This is a book written for people who are suffering. This is a book written for those trying to put their lives back together against the backdrop of sorrow, disappointment, grief, and pain. In the midst of such pain and confusion many have questioned God and hardened their hearts against Him. The rationale goes if God exists and loves us how could He allow such soul throbbing hurts in our lives.

            Many times I have had a front row seat to witness painful seasons of life. I have listened to brokenhearted spouses with swollen tear filled eyes trying to cope with divorce. I have sat by the bedsides of those horrifically ravaged with pain staring death in the eyes. I have wept with people in the midst of terrible tragedies. I have stood with grieving parents pleading for prodigal sons and daughters to return to the Lord. I have watched the hopelessness of those living in financial hardship scrambling to stay one step ahead of creditors. I have wept with those who have lost loved ones and I’ve made their grief my own.

            There is much being written today about the victorious Christian life. I do not think a twelve step strategy for the victorious Christian life would have helped Job and some of the real life people I have rubbed shoulders and shared life with. At times I have stood in stunned silence with those enduring suffering having no words of comfort, no theological explanations, and with my own questions.

            [Psalm 30:5] serves as the backdrop for this book. “For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor, a lifetime. Weeping may endure for a night, but there is joy in the morning.” (HCSB) I find two things fascinating about this verse. First, God lets us know there will be some dark nights of weeping in life. There will be seasons of sorrow and grieving that might seem like they will never end. These nights of 

            This is what I am certain of. Nights of weeping do not last forever even though it might not seem that way. Yesterday’s trials can turn into tomorrow’s triumphs. God always has the last say. He told us up front there would be some hard seasons to get through. He told us that He would never leave us or forsake us in those tough times. He also told us,  on the heels of every night of weeping for the child of God joy would come in the morning. That morning might be in this present life or we may discover it in eternity. Either way the long awaited joyous morning will come. Hang on until that day.