I am often surprised by sorrow. I didn’t realize how many different shades of sadness I could experience. Small moments trigger me, and I am often triggered, especially when people say something to me about my dad. I rarely get through the conversation without crying. This weekend I noticed a new shade of sorrow. 

Driving my daughter to the airport, she caught sight of a big sign that says, “Fred’s Appliances.” “Don’t you feel sad when you see that sign?” she asked. I replied I never have. Then I felt a twinge of guilt that I didn’t feel sad about the sign. That was followed by questioning myself whether I should I feel sad…which obviously made me immediately sad. This too is an experience of grief. Learning to live with sorrow in all its strange configurations. 

I watched a reel about an atheist purporting the world is more beautiful because it is finite and there is no afterlife. His answer was to “live it up” in the moment. In the reel, a person asks him, “If right now is all there is, why not opt to end your life now?” His answer was, “Life is like watching a movie. If you are enjoying the movie, why turn it off? Why not enjoy it ‘till the end?”  

I think of how facile and empty this answer is in the face of sorrow and suffering. That is why I continue to come back in my mind to the absolute radiant joy of the Good News. What does the Good News mean? It means my sorrow is temporary. It means suffering has a purpose. It means everlasting joy and love, boundless grace, and endless delight are found in communion with God and others. Sorrow holds no candle to Good News. Nihilism makes no sense in light of the Good News. All that I loved about my dad is found in God. This is the Good News.  

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” – Isaiah 52:7

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