By drawing from what I’ve learned about God in the past, I gain confidence that I can trust him with my present and my future—by recalling how we know the Bible is reliable, by going over the arguments for God’s existence, by examining the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, by bringing to mind how Christianity corresponds with reality. Recalling what I’ve learned gives me confidence in God.

I’m not a fan of rollercoasters. Not that I haven’t sometimes braved them, but when faced with the choice of riding a rollercoaster, I usually opt out.

But I don’t have the choice to opt out of the ups, downs, and abrupt twists and turns in life. The grief that finds us when a loved one is suddenly gone. The unexpected diagnosis, the miscarriage, the infertility, the betrayal, the loss of job or home, the fractured relationship, the rejected application, the life-altering injury. Sometimes simply getting out of bed in the morning is anything but simple; it takes all we have to get up and greet the day. We watch as some dreams and hopes we once had slowly turn to dust. Not one single person is immune to pain or grief.

We all feel the crushing weight of this world at times—this fallen, sin-stained, broken, busted-up world. “This should not be,” our hearts cry out. “This is not as it should be.” Our hearts testify to this truth because God wrote eternity and his very law on our hearts (Eccl. 3:11; Rom. 2:15). We know what is right—and what is wrong. We rightly cry out at injustice and long for the day when all will be made right.

We’ve all echoed David’s cry:

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?

How long will You hide Your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,

Having sorrow in my heart all the day? (Ps. 13:1–2)

“How long?” we wonder. Life’s heartaches can be unbearable.

Even Jesus wept.

Yes, Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief.

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