A Word from the Vine No. 551: Where I've Been

Well hey there, friends. This is A Word from the Vine, and I'm Pastor Loren Christensen, coming to you from the Danish Countryside Chapel here in Exira.

I owe you an explanation for my silence these past weeks, and I'd rather just tell you the truth than pretend I've been too busy.

This spring, I lost my best friend, Keli, to cancer.

I'm not going to pretend I've had much to say into a microphone since then. Some seasons, the words just don't come — not because faith disappears, but because grief takes up all the room in a person for a while.

Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 tells us: "For everything there is a season... a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance." I've always preached that verse easily. I'm learning now how hard it is to actually live inside it.

So today I'm not bringing you a tidy lesson. I'm just telling you where I've been, and letting you know that for the next several weeks, A Word from the Vine is going to walk through grief — honestly, slowly, the way I'm having to walk through it myself.

If you're grieving something or someone right now too, I hope you'll walk it with me.

This is Pastor Loren. Thanks for listening to A Word from the Vine. And remember — the Gospel isn't just something we believe. It's something we live, even when living it hurts.