A Time to Mourn

To everything there is a season...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance...  (Ecclesiastes 3)

For many of us in Goshen, this is the time to weep, the time to mourn.

We will all miss Sean Hurley.  His death leaves a hole in many lives.  It also unearths a wide range of emotions; sorrow and sadness, pain and woundedness, guilt and regret, anxiety and dread, perhaps even frustration and anger.  These are all natural responses to death, especially death by suicide.

We all deal with grief in different ways.  Some find it most helpful to talk with other people while others prefer to journal or write.  Some find it helpful to share their writing while others prefer to keep it to themselves.  Some find it most helpful to reach out and help others, while others need someone to reach out to them.

This evening (Thursday at 7pm) we will devote our regularly scheduled service of prayer and healing to praying for Sean’s family and beginning to process our grief.  We are not going to run from or avoid the matter of suicide.  Rather, we want to create some space to grapple with it openly and honestly.  Greg Hinkle, a counselor with the Samaritan Center, will be present and available to help us all in this process.

If you are not comfortable speaking what you feel or you were not able to attend the service, we hope that our blog will provide another avenue for people to share their thoughts and feelings. Click on the "Comments" link below to share your thoughts.

Here are some questions to consider:

1) Where were you when you heard the news, and what did you think and feel?

2) What will you always remember about Sean?

3) What did Sean give you that you will have with you always?