When Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" in Matthew 5:4, He brought up an important question: whom are we mourning?

Certainly we grieve for our lost loved ones, our friends, or people who have touched us in a special way. But that mourning is largely for our own loss. We are sad because they are gone from our lives.

While that's part of the mourning Christ is talking about, I don't believe it's the whole picture. What if we were to take a more active role in mourning ... on a daily basis no less. Yet, the people we know and love don't die every day, or at least we hope they don't. If we aren't mourning for our loved ones, for whom can we mourn?

The Greek word used in this context is pentheō, which means to be sad or sorrowful. So it's not necessarily to grieve for a lost loved one, just to feel sorrow. As a matter of fact, there are a great many opportunities to feel sad for other people's misery. If you doubt that, just drive past any hospital.

Once, I was in a hospital for an extended stay. When they finally released me, I was so happy to be leaving. Most of us are like that—happy to be headed home from the hospital. But as we were leaving, my wife suggested we stop and pray for those who weren't headed home. In the midst of our happiness, we stopped and took their sadness upon ourselves.

Does that mean we walk around feeling sad and sorrowful all the time. What about the joy we feel as adopted children and brothers and sisters of Christ? Certainly we should not forget our joy, but how difficult is it to take a few moments out of our joy to remember those whose lives aren't going exactly as planned.

The writer of Hebrews had this to say about fellow prisoners: "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also" (Hebrews 13:3). In other words, we must chain ourselves to the pain and hurt of others. That is what Christ demands.

It's not just people in hospitals. Do you feel sorrow as the ambulance or fire truck races past you, or even if you just hear the siren? How about the people at the nursing homes and old-age residential living facilities? Often, we see their names listed in our church programs every Sunday. Do we read their names on Sunday and then forget about them the rest of the week? Do our hearts ache for them and share in their sorrow at being where they are?

It goes even further. In 1971, country singer Johnny Cash released the song Man in Black. That's a perfect example of building mourning into our character. He not only wrote about a man in black, but took on that persona. Recall why he wore black, the international symbol of mourning:


Are they not people for whom we should mourn? Jesus said the poor will always be with us, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't mourn and pray for them, and help where we can. Or how about those who have yet to receive Jesus Christ as their savior. Cash also wrote:


I've heard Christians say time and time again, "I can't wait for the rapture to come." Certainly, we all want to be with Jesus, but we probably all still know too many people who have yet to surrender their lives to Jesus to want everything to suddenly come to an end. We need to mourn for those lost souls, rather than to see them left behind for our own selfish motives. And the virtuous thing about mourning—it leads directly to prayer.