Dr. Keith Evans reminds us that grieving is not a failure of faith—it’s a faithful response to the reality of a broken world. Scripture doesn’t call us to mask our sorrow with artificial joy, but to grieve and lament before God with honesty and hope.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
Should Christians grieve?
Absolutely. Now, let me start there with crystal clarity. Absolutely, it’s okay for Christians to grieve. There is a sense that we see that some quarters of the church would suggest that stoicism or always putting on a happy face is more righteous than, you know, letting our emotions get the best of us or something. And so, we need to avoid grieving and mourning, and we need to strive for a kind of perpetual happiness presented as contentment. We can grieve and be content. In fact, the scriptures call us to go to the house of mourning. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7 that “it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the House of Mirth.” And that the righteous are to take that to heart. So we’re actually called to grieve, and to lament and mourn well. And that is not a weakness of our faith. That is not something we should overlook as we consider it all joy, as we face trials of many kinds. That’s not an artificial happiness in the face of difficulty. That is a contentment even as we mourn, even as we grieve. And so what I want the church to do is to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn and do that well. To come alongside our brothers and sisters, to grieve with them, not to try to take that away and say, hey, stop grieving, stop mourning. You’ve had enough. No, can we weep with them? Can we mourn them? And can we do that before the face of our God and do well?
Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7 that “it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of mirth.” And that the righteous are to take that to heart. So we’re actually called to grieve, and to lament and mourn well. And that is not a weakness of our faith.