Jesus encourages us to love with real openness and honesty, but such love also brings great vulnerability. By loving and living in a way that we mourn deeply, we open ourselves up to incredible heartache, trouble, and hurt. But! We also draw closer to Jesus, and, with Him, there is potential for great joy because Jesus has overcome the world. (See John 16:33.) In other words, the risk of grief or mourning can be overwhelming. It is not easy to love people to a point where we mourn over hardship and loss. But, through it, God promises life-changing joy if we are willing to take the chance.

The life that risks love to the point of real vulnerability shifts the world’s expectations about love. By risking our own grief, we see the possibility of genuine relationship and community, of sincere faith and spiritual connection—as God intended from the beginning.

We should not miss the declarative tone of Jesus’s blessing: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Certainly, Jesus affirms the presence of mourning in this world, and the risk of love that often leads to such emotions, but equally affirming is the promise of spectacular comfort born from the heart of God. God calls us to risk ourselves not for the mere possibility of comfort, but in the certainty of it.

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