Sometimes people should stop talking before they start!

So, yesterday was Sunday. My council (aka board of elders) gave the notice that I have asked for a leave, and they have approved. So, now I am counting the days. And, in the meantime, trying to work through the discussions I am having. For the most part, people are giving me their blessings while I get ready to take time off. But I know, and I expect it, some people just do not know when to stop talking. Yes, I realize some people are just trying to do the right thing. I am really trying not to "throw the babies out with the bathwater" but really, come on folks, we need to think before we speak, and actually ask ourselves if what we say is lifegiving. I think we assume that it is always lifegiving when we quote scripture at what we think are appropriate times. Such was the case yesterday, when a man came up, and really, I think that originally his intent was good, he just did not know when to stop talking.
The conversation began with telling me we would be prayed for, and went on to how I must be holier or something (I think that was the word) because God is giving us so much to bear. I said, Oh I don't know about that, to which he carried on and assured me that "God doesn't give us more than we can bear..." Okay, I have to tell you, it is hard enough to "bear" it, let alone hearing the pat Jesus things that people tend to say.... about Jesus bringing good out of it, and about Jesus will make something beautiful, and that Jesus timing is never wrong... and well, you get the picture. Really, I know what I read, about God's faithfulness, and about him doing things and all that, but when grief is still so raw and incredibly painful, somehow it is one thing for me to know it, and another one for people to continue to tell me that. Really, if I have learned anything, that is one thing that I have learned, that the pat christian answers can be really really hard to take. Sometimes a hug is the best thing you can say.

So, anyhow, back to the conversation.... after He assured me that Jesus doesn't give us more than we can bear, I said, "well, Jesus has broken me"
At that point, my dear friend J. and my daughter intervened, knowing that I needed to be rescued. Thank you God for friends and family that actually have a sense of where we are at, and respond.

Anyhow, later, while I was at a prayer night at our church, I was reading in Psalm 51. This is actually a psalm that my street friend has recited to me a couple times.
But after the favorite verses, and I will let you look them up yourself... then I read this verse, and it was like an aha moment... because you see, when I told this guy that God had broken me... I was not sure if I should have stated that... if it was truly God who has broken me...
then I read this.
Psalm 51:8
"Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me - now let me rejoice."

Hm... broken. You God have broken me.... now, please let me rejoice. That's what it says in your word... Lord, hear those words again, from my lips. Please let me rejoice.