May 08, 2022
Greetings and blessings to all of you. Grieving can be the most difficult time for people. Trying to balance the feelings of pain and loss while going forward with your everyday life can be overwhelming. But like Hannah we can get through this. Sister Hannah gives us insight on how to do this. First of all, Hannah knew The Lord. Do you know the Lord? Hannah knew that sometimes God will place us in a waiting room…a place where she had no control over her circumstances. Hannah saw what patience looked like when she saw her husband Elkanah “go up year by year from this city to worship and sacrifice to the Lord”. Because God had “closed her womb “and her rival Peninnah (her husband’s other woman) “provoked her to irritate her”, Hannah wept and cried out to the Lord. All of us had to go into the “waiting room” where we can express our anguish to find meaning in the painful experience to identify through our conversation with the Lord the who, what and why of our bleak situation. We need to have that space (waiting room) to feel all the pain, not label it, not dismiss it, nor minimize it. Although it is hard to feel what hurts… giving voice to our emotions helps us to validate our experience and like Hannah take it to the next level. In her prayer Hannah was very clear and specific. “She was deeply distressed and prayed and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, no razor shall touch his head.” (1 Sam. 1:10-11) David’s prayer in Psalm 13 also was unrestrained, vulnerable. He was open with his emotions, unmet expectations, and honest questions when he was in his “waiting room”. Hannah knew that she could Trust the Lord; she could be so transparent to the Lord that Eli the priest thought she was drunk but Hannah said, “No my lord I am a woman troubled in spirit. .I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation” (1 Sam.1:15-18) Hannah has shown us what Power over Pain looks like. It is pressing into the heart of God with prayer. Trusting Him with submission and humility because “HE CARES FOR YOU”
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC