Memorial Service for Nick Blubaugh

Here is the text of what I said on Saturday at Nick’s funeral.

On behalf of the family, I’d like to welcome members of the Auburn community, the Washburn-Rural High School community, the WARU Marching Band, and other family and friends of Nick here today. We’re here today to share in the loss of Nick.

Death is always hard to deal with. Death of a life so young, with so much promise is even more difficult. So we’re here today stunned and hurting. The questions are many on a day like today. We wonder — why? what if? Is God here? Does He care? Does He even exist?

And it’s okay to ask those questions. And one day – we might even find some answers. But that’s not why we are here today. Today isn’t about answering those questions because no answer is going to remove or lessen the pain and loss we feel.

Today is about grieving. But today is also about hope and celebrating life as well.

Psalm 34:18 says this —

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

There isn’t a better description of what we’ve experienced these past few days – brokenhearted & crushed.

There’s a temptation to ignore these kinds of words in times of pain because so many times they are spoken by well-meaning people who don’t really understand what you’re going through. But the man who wrote these words did understand. His name was David and he was the second King of Israel. Even though he was a king, his life was marked with brokenness and loss.

As a young boy, he watched his older brothers go off to war. He watched many of his friends die in that war. His best friend would be killed as a teenager. As he grew older and had a family – one of his sons was murdered. Another of his sons was killed in war. And he would lose a third son in infancy. David knew to the core what it meant to be brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

How could he say those words? Could he really believe that?

I don’t think David had figured out the problem of evil and suffering. I don’t think David ever got all of his questions answered. I do think David knew 3 truths that allowed him to say these words.

First, God is not immune to pain. God himself had to endure the pain of being broken and crushed Himself. Losing Jesus, His Son. Wrongly accused at a young age. Beaten and crucified on the cross. The earth that day reflected God’s pain in darkness. God speaks of this anguish in scripture.

So we weep and mourn today. The pain is deep and real and sharp. But know that we don’t weep alone. Not only is there a whole community that is weeping with you, God himself has experienced this same kind of loss. And He is close to the broken-hearted and crushed.

Second, God doesn’t waste pain. I can’t understand fully why God allows pain. I’m not comfortable blaming God – I’m not comfortable defending Him either. There is much I don’t understand and am ill-prepared to speak about. I do know that pain – in God’s economy – is never wasted. He will use that pain to heal, to move us to action, to get our attention, to change us. Time will tell how this pain will be used.

When God experienced the pain of losing his own son, it was the beginning of hope for the entire world. Death had had the final word on humanity for years, no one had ever faced death and won. Someone had to defeat Death and it could only be someone who had lived perfectly, with no sin. Jesus was the only One who could do this but he would have to die first. So the pain God experienced in losing Jesus was great – it wasn’t wasted. It became the doorway of hope.

So weep and mourn today. The pain is deep and sharp. But we do not do so in vain. One day — not today, probably not tomorrow — but one day we’ll see how God will use this pain.

The last truth David knew that allowed him to say these words is – since God himself understands pain AND He doesn’t waste it – that makes Him the greatest resource of hope and healing.

Listen to these words again —

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Listen to what else David wrote in the same 34th Psalm:

I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

This man who had all of that pain and loss, the broken heart, the crushed in spirit — knew that his best resource of hope, his greatest resource of healing was the Lord, himself. I sought the Lord…

One of the most frustrating characteristics of God is His silence – especially in the middle of tragedies. But one of the most comforting characteristics of God is His presence – especially in the middle of tragedies.

It’s His presence through his son Jesus Christ that is the greatest resource of hope and healing. And it’s that presence I pray for you and your family and our community today.

Let’s pray.

?Heavenly Father,

We are before you today as a brokenhearted and crushed in spirit people. We hurt. We are confused. We are angry. We are tired. We are mourning.

We pray Psalm 34 today – Be close to us, the brokenhearted and crush. Answer us and deliver us. I pray the healing presence of Jesus for us today.

In Jesus name, AMEN.