How Long Will You Mourn?
“How long will you mourn for Saul?” These words initiate the greatest adventure for Samuel. Marked out from childhood for a life as a prophet of the Lord, Samuel was well into his years as a prophet and his years as a supporter and advisor of King Saul. But Saul’s disobedience, long mourned by Samuel had prompted a new message from the Lord to Samuel who is being sent to anoint a new king over Israel.
In obedience, Samuel hurries off to anoint the selected, unimaginable candidate: a shepherd boy, David. Generations later, great David’s greater son would come to rule, not only over Israel, but over all of creation. And among the myriad of events and personalities that brought the arrival of our saviour Jesus, is this question that comes to Samuel: how long will you mourn?
Samuel’ s period of mourning for his broken dream endured for some years before God speaks to him. But do we sometimes need this word for ourselves, to hear, “How long will you mourn?” Mourning is a normal and healthy human function. We mourn lost loved ones, lost relationships, lost abilities, lost opportunities. Mourning brings healing, restoration, prepares us for what is next. Optimally, mourning is a healthful season rather than a permanent state.
So this Lent, perhaps Samuel has a message to speak to us. Could we see Samuel as a personal messenger, the guardian angel who encourages us to examine this question; “How long will you mourn?”
It’s sometimes tempting to keep mourning, to keep holding on to our losses. Staying in mourning releases us from responsibilities, keeps us focussed on our own wounds, absolves us of taking a new or renewed path, affirms our detachment from the world.
To remain in mourning can become a rejection of what God calls us into. As another prophet, Isaiah, reminds us
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 4:16,19
The Lord asks Samuel, how long will you mourn. It might be counterintuitive during Lent with its penitential mode, the mark of Ash Wednesday still imprinted on the brow, but could it be a time to consider the question to the prophet landing on us: “How long will you mourn?”
Diane Walker