Leading through mourning….
It’s been an emotional week for me. My mom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last week. She has had surgery, is recovering and the prognosis seems to be very good. Final pathology reports will be out tomorrow or the next week.
As we awaited surgery yesterday and sat in the hospital last night, we watched along with the rest of the nation in shock and horror as the events at Virginia Tech unfolded….deep, gut wrenching sadness and loss.
I’ve always been a George W. Bush supporter, even before he became my President. But there have been moments in the past 7 years when I understand with the deepest gratitude why he is in office. Some of the darkest moments in our country’s history have occured while he’s been in office. Events totally out of all our control.
In these times when we have been driven to our nation’s knees in despair and pain, George W. Bush has been there to lead the nation in mourning. Leading through mourning takes a very unique individual. A spiritually mature individual. It takes someone with deeply rooted compassion and faith. It takes someone with transparent emotions and a fearless resolve to comfort and lead even through tears. Until today watching my President with those grieving students, parents and faculty, I had not been able to put words to what I’ve witnessed in George W. Bush. But today, the words rose in my heart…."Leading through mourning."
Many have criticized my President for displaying his emotions so openly. If he’s frustrated or mad, you know it. If he’s happy, you know it. If he’s royally ticked off with the press for instance, oh yes you know it. But if he’s hurting, that’s when my President is the most transparent. When his heart is broken you really know it. When he’s walking with our nation "through the valley of the shadow of death", he leads our mourning by showing us that while it hurts to the deepest parts of our heart, he honestly and genuinely believes that God is with us.
Many times we’ve experienced the strong one in our individual family who leads us through the hard times. The family member who rallies us together and tells us it’s ok to hurt and ok to be overwhelmed with grief. But also the one who says, "Come on. Let’s walk through this together." That’s my President.
In many ways, George W. Bush is NOT like President Ronald Reagan. But this is one way he is very much like Reagan. He has the heart and personality that is easily moved and filled with compassion and open emotion. Reagan led us through mourning when we lost the Challenger. At that time, it was the worst thing a generation had been through. And he led us through the mourning.
We can’t change the past or the circumstances that bring us to a difficult exerience, but we can walk through it with God and eventually move past the hurt and journey to victory over evil. And that’s really the lesson of today. We’ve come to a difficult time in our nation’s history, and I for one am so grateful to have a leader who is willing to lead….even through mourning.
