Real Hope: Dealing With Disappointment and FailureSample

See You In The Morning

Grace was the church organist when I was six or seven years old. For some reason, Grace and her husband adopted my much younger parents into their family. I don’t recollect her speaking about children of their own. After church, we would visit for a few hours. Grace would serve my brother and I baked beans on white toast, an exotic repast given we weren’t normally allowed white bread. And the beans were otherworldly, not from a can – most likely descended from heaven on cherub’s wings.

Then we stopped having beans at Grace’s place and my parents started whispering before we’d arrive for shorter and more infrequent visits. She was always in bed by then. .Then one day she wasn’t. Cancer. We had prayed, and the Pastor and church elders had prayed and read the Bible beside Grace’s bed for hours. Grace was still gone.

This was my first brush with loss and it made no sense. We had prayed all the right words. Important people whose prayers surely mattered more than mine had prayed. I was so disappointed in God. I was disappointed in the important people. I remember feeling deeply and achingly let down.

I don’t remember the funeral except for hearing someone close by say in a hushed tone: ‘See you in the morning Grace.’ It seemed odd, and yet encouraging. Years later I discovered Psalm 30:5.

Disappointment and failure have visited since, but I’ve been reminded of those words on those occasions. There will be a morning when disappointment, loss, and failure are forgotten.

Written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES