Right after a person dies, the family is often deluged with kindness and comfort....for about a week. Then the crowds go away as soon as they came, the house gets quiet, and the family is left alone with their grief.
I get it. It's difficult to maintain that kind of intensity over a long period of time. It's easier to turn around and walk away because the emotions are so raw; the pain just doesn't go away. But for the family, the pain remains. The absence of the loved one is palpable every day, even when life must return to some kind of normal.
What is thrift in this situation? I think that sometimes, maybe, we need to dial down our initial enthusiasm and look towards the future. We must remember that the grieving family will need love and care later on down the road, and we may need to save our emotional strength for the long haul. Does this mean we ignore the present? Of course not. But we do need to recognize that the present is not all we have. Yes, we must live as if there is no tomorrow, but we must remember that there oftentimes is a tomorrow, and we'll need to get a good night's sleep so we can be well rested for the next day's to-do list.
Amen.
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