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Today is an “Eeyore” sort of day around here, primarily in terms of the weather: gray and gloomy. Fortunately, other aspects of life for my family and me are more Tigger-like — bouncy and happy — at present, for which I am grateful.
At the same time, I know of a friend who has recently lost her husband to sudden death, another who is dealing with relationship problems, and — as I’m sure is the case in your life, too — the list goes on and on.
Recently, I read a Winnie-the-Pooh storybook to my five-year-old and was struck by a line. You may remember the story of Pooh visiting Rabbit’s home (a hole in a sandy bank), where he eats so much that he can’t squeeze himself back out the door. He ends up stuck there, half in and half out, for several days during which he is not allowed to eat in order that he might get thin enough for his friends to pull him free. While in this predicament, as you might imagine, he gets to feeling quite down. And so — and here is that favorite line of mine — “[His friends] sang him Sustaining Songs and tried to cheer him up…”
That’s the “Little Golden Book” version. In the original telling by A. A. Milne, the friends tell Pooh Sustaining Stories. Either way… I am reminded of how, when someone dies, the family and loved ones are not left alone. Rather, especially if the individual and family have been part of a faith community, the community surrounds the survivors and, often in the context of a memorial service, sings “Sustaining Songs” and tells “Sustaining Stories.”
When I am a member of such a community surrounding the bereaved, I try to sing the selected hymns strongly and confidently because often the mourners aren’t able to do so. I want them to hear the voices behind them, like a wall of music upon which they can lean. As a pastor who used to lead funeral services regularly, I would tell special stories from the deceased person’s life and read fitting stories and other passages from Scripture with hope in my voice to mitigate at least some of the power of the family’s sorrow.
Not only at times of death, however, do we sing Sustaining Songs and tell Sustaining Stories to one another — figuratively, if not literally. All through life, we need each other to do so. You have your down days, and so do I. When you are down — for whatever reason: a bad cold laying you low, a concern about your child, a job frustration, a dream that has died — I will, to the best of my ability, sing you Sustaining Songs and tell you Sustaining Stories; I will stay near you and keep you company, until you are released from wherever you are stuck. I trust you will do the same for me. After all, that’s what friends are for.
Does someone in your life need a Sustaining Song or Story today? Do what your heart urges you to do.
