52 SONGS / 52 WEEKS
No silver line
No Silver Line
A few years ago, the family of a colleague of mine experienced two deaths in a single year.
The first was his father, who had lived a long life and whose health had been declining for years. He struggled with a series of ailments, including cancer. He was bedridden, had had a number of close calls that the family thought would be it, and had largely disappeared in body and spirit. In many ways, my colleague’s family had mourned his father’s looming death long before he exhaled for the final time.
The second death was much more sudden. The 24-year-old fiancé of my colleague’s daughter died unexpectedly because of an undiagnosed heart condition. A strong and otherwise healthy young man’s life gone in an instant.
My heart was shattered for my colleague and his family. Two deaths in a single year, one that seemed to take forever to come and the other that came far too soon. What words can you say to comfort someone who is experiencing such pain?
Ironically, not long before these tragedies, my colleague and his daughter had performed a song at church called All My Favorite People are Broken. It is a wonderful song by a wonderful band, Over the Rhine. However, to be honest, I think the song–and our church’s use of it–kind of romanticized “brokenness.” Something I am often guilty of, myself.
Yes, brokenness can lead to powerful testimonies of God’s grace. And that is a wonderful thing. But sometimes brokenness just sucks…like when one family experiences two deaths in one year. And I firmly believe that in those moments there is no use in trying to locate a silver lining to the brokenness; no use in trying to find the right words or means of comfort. In those times, the best thing we can do is just mourn and lament and cry.
Our tears are like prayers; both contain something that cannot be contained–the deep, deep longing we all have for things to be the way they’re supposed to be and the deep, deep awareness that our world is far from it.
Twenty-four year olds are not supposed to die. Cancer is not supposed to exist. Death is not the end for which we were made. And the tears that accompany our experience of such things reveal that truth. I don’t know that that always brings comfort, but it does speak to the hope that one day such things will no longer exist, that one day we will experience the world as it was intended to be. That is a hope I cling to. It is a hope I know my colleague and his family do too.
Maranatha.
Lyrics
In times when death comes to soon
or hangs on for far too long
There is pain that’s deeper
than the wounds
where no comfort,
no words can be found
There is beauty
There is bravery
in our tears and what we pray
for both contain
what cannot be contained
A longing deeply haunting us
for what we do not know
but know that death is not the end
for which we’re made
In times when the wrongs
outweigh the rights
and brokenness bears
no silver line
There is beauty
There is bravery
in our tears and what we pray
for both contain
what cannot be contained
A longing deeply haunting us
for what we do not know
but know that broken
is not how we were made
So, do something beautiful
Do something brave
Go on, let your tears fall
Go on and pray
There is peace
There is peace
that the world has never known
but it seeks
and it believes that it will find
It’s a mystery
a mystery
that hints at what is waiting
in our tears and in our prayers
but outside our reach
Credits
Words & Music: Bill Wolf
Violin: Thomas Smith
Produced: Alyssa Shepherd