May 6, 2025 • 27 mins
In this deeply personal episode, Charlie and Jill discuss the ongoing journey of grief and healing, emphasizing that healing takes time and space. They reflect on how their understanding of God's compassion deepened as they experienced Him as the “God of All Comfort.”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Charlie LeBlanc (00:05):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode
of our Finding Hope podcast.
Jill LeBlanc (00:12):
Getting Through What You Never Asked For.
Charlie LeBlanc (00:15):
That's right. What an amazing subtitle that we
came up with. Actually, ourproducer came up with it. It was
pretty cool. But yeah, GettingThrough What You Never Asked
For.
And there's so many things inlife that we are faced with that
we never asked for, we neverexpected, we never wanted, and I
(00:36):
feel so much for people who havebeen through tragedies, through
divorces, through deaths in thefamily, through losing jobs,
losing investments, all kinds ofdifferent tragedies that happen
in our lives. And our hope inthis podcast is to encourage you
to not lose hope, to find hope,to get through these difficult
(01:00):
things. And it takes time to getthrough some of these things.
Jill LeBlanc (01:03):
Oh, it takes a lot of time.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:05):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (01:05):
I've been working on a devotional.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:07):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (01:08):
And just in this writing, just just to relive
some of our moments just to andto think about other people
we've talked to through theyears that are in a a new season
of of mourning because of a lossin their life. It just takes so
much time.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:25):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (01:26):
And it's not like you ever get through it, but
just to kinda get back on yourfeet again.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:31):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (01:32):
It, you just have to give time. You have to give
yourself space. You have to giveyourself permission to go there
and just work with this newnormal, new season in your life.
I even hate to call it a newnormal, because, you know, we
don't want to identify withgrief as being our new normal,
(01:56):
but it's just part of thejourney.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:58):
Yeah. I think we do definitely, as we've
experienced after sixteen yearsafter losing Beau, by the way,
Beau's gonna be turning 40 yearsold this May, May 14th, and so
we're gonna get together withour girls and celebrate,
although I'm sure it's timelessin heaven, but nonetheless it's
(02:19):
important to us, it means a lotto us to think that-
Jill LeBlanc (02:21):
But you know about that I feel, this is how I feel
about birthdays from people thathave passed on.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:27):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (02:28):
If they were never born on the earth, they won't be
in, they wouldn't be in heavenright now if they're already
there.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:36):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (02:36):
And so I bet you well, I think heaven is gonna be
a party every day. It's gonna becontinual party. But, you know,
there's probably something aboutbirthdays in heaven because
they're celebrating a personthat was born that God loved and
brought brought to heaven.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:54):
I think so.
Jill LeBlanc (02:55):
I think it's kind of a cool thought.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:57):
It is cool. But anyway, so yeah, so you know,
we're here to support you inthese anniversaries, these
birthdays, these situations thatyou confront, we just went
through Easter and I know a lotof people, we have Mother's Day
coming up, and as you said,Jill, you've been working on
this devotional and you'reremembering all these people
(03:19):
that have lost loved ones, andobviously we're remembering our
loss. But you know, God hashelped us after sixteen years,
we talked about time, you know,it takes time It does. To get
through these things. I mean,people try to rush you, people
try to tell you you need to doit this way, you need to, you
know, clean out your closet,your loved one's closet, you
(03:41):
need to do all these differentthings, but there's no timetable
for grief there's no timetablefor mourning.
And as we know, Ecclesiastessays, there's a time to mourn,
you know, there's a time fortears, there's a time for
everything under heaven,so, uh...
Jill LeBlanc (03:58):
And and you don't really, you never know. You
never know when it's going tohit you. Just like that young
man you spokewith whose mother died.
Charlie LeBlanc (04:07):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (04:09):
And even though it's been a couple years, still,
he's he was turning 21 and thatjust made him miss his mom
because he wasn't she wasn'tthere for that milestone in his
life and you just never knowwhat's gonna trigger something
in your heart and, someonewished me a happy Easter in a
(04:33):
text and I think she saidsomething like, we'll all be
together soon in heaven orsomething like that and and made
a comment about, you know,thinking about us and Beau not
being here with us. Oh my gosh,it just kinda took me to the
place. I mean, I was totally notthere at all. And and just
(04:56):
hearing her reach out in lovetook me took me there.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:00):
Yeah. Took us there. But again, we don't
wanna, we don't mind that.
Jill LeBlanc (05:04):
Right.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:05):
We'd rather be reminded and go to that place
than to than for people to avoidthe subject.
Jill LeBlanc (05:13):
Absolutely.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:14):
You know, oh happy Mother's Day, Jill, you
know, and don't say anythingabout, you must be really
missing your son, you know.Although it takes us back to,
yeah, I do miss my son, but youappreciate them mentioning his
name and saying so yeah, there'sa lot of mothers out there that
you're facing this Mother's Daywithout your loved one, without
(05:37):
one of your child, childrenpossibly, and and just want you
to know we're standing with you.We pray for you. We love you.
It's a it's a difficult time.People just don't don't
understand that.
Jill LeBlanc (05:49):
Yeah. In Isaiah 40, I was just reading that the
one of the things God told us todo is comfort my people.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:58):
Yes.
Jill LeBlanc (05:59):
And He is a God of all comfort and He cares for us
when we're hurting. He cares forus all the time. He just loves
us all the time.
Charlie LeBlanc (06:08):
Yes, He does.
Jill LeBlanc (06:09):
But He wants us to comfort each other. And so we
pray that as we share somethings from the Bible this
morning that or today, that youwill receive some comfort if you
need comforting. And maybeanother time when you don't need
it right now, but you might needit later, that these these
thoughts will come back to youand help you.
Charlie LeBlanc (06:30):
That's right. And so in light of this, I do
wanna start with a scripturethat jumped out of the page to
me back when we were really,really grieving, and that's in 2
Corinthians, the first chapter,and the third and fourth verse,
but I'm gonna talk mainly aboutthe third verse right now, it
(06:52):
says, "Blessed be the God andFather of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and theGod of all comfort." You know,
it's interesting, I had readthis scripture for so many
years, I'd even written a songcalled Father of Mercies that
that were recorded in 1991 on analbum called Run to Him.
Jill LeBlanc (07:16):
Thirty years ago.
Charlie LeBlanc (07:17):
And and and, you know, we we wrote scripture,
we sang scripture, weexperienced a lot of God's love
and God's peace in scripture,but when we needed it the most,
when we were broken, when wewere hurting, that's when all of
(07:39):
a sudden these kind ofscriptures jumped out of the
page, and they continue to jumpout of the page for me that I
read things about God's love,his compassion, his comfort in
suffering and in pain, and itjumps out of the page, for me
and to me. And this is whathappened in this situation. All
(08:00):
of a sudden, I saw God is theGod of all comfort? What? You
know, I knew him as a God ofmiracles, a God of redemption.
He forgave my sins. I knew Godas as, like, the the one that
walked on the water who fed the5,000. You know, I knew him as
(08:21):
the king of kings and lord oflords. And and I I knew him as
as someone that I could pray toand and and I could have
fellowship with and worship, ofcourse, we're worship leaders,
we have worshiped him all of ourlife and enjoyed his amazing
presence. But I didn't see himas the God of all comfort, That
(08:45):
was so weird.
It it was not weird, but newto me.
Jill LeBlanc (08:50):
Because you didn't really need it.
Charlie LeBlanc (08:51):
I didn't need it. No.
Jill LeBlanc (08:52):
So much before. I mean, you encountered
challenging times through yourlife.
Charlie LeBlanc (08:57):
Yeah. Sure.
Jill LeBlanc (08:58):
Through, you know, through your whole Christian
life even, but not maybe to thepoint that you felt you needed
comfort
Charlie LeBlanc (09:06):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (09:06):
From Him.
Charlie LeBlanc (09:07):
Right. Until. Until this. Yeah. And again, I
didn't really know what thatlooked like, or what that would
be like, but when I read thisscripture and saw that He was
the God of all comfort, thenthat did something on the inside
(09:29):
of me, because all of a sudden Irealized He's not condemning me
for grieving.
He's not mad at me for beingdisappointed. No, He comes
alongside of me and He, in asense, puts His arm around me.
Yeah. And that's a beautiful,beautiful thing, is that he is
(09:53):
the God of all comfort, so whenwe're hurting, he comes
alongside of us and holds us,puts his arm around us, and I
don't wanna get ahead of myself,but even weeps with us when we
weep.
Jill LeBlanc (10:10):
You know, just read a scripture here a little
bit ago from Isaiah 41 and inverse 9 at the end of it, well,
the whole thing says, I'vecalled you back from the ends of
the earth saying you are myservant. But at the end of this
verse, it says, for I havechosen you and I will not throw
you away.
Charlie LeBlanc (10:30):
Praise God.
Jill LeBlanc (10:32):
Yeah. Ain't that beautiful? I mean, even when we
feel like we're on the trashheap because everything has just
fallen apart. He said he willnot throw us away because He's,
we are valuable to him.
Charlie LeBlanc (10:46):
Oh, yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (10:46):
He loves us so much.
Charlie LeBlanc (10:48):
He does. He loves us with an unending love.
We know all the scriptures, forGod so loved the world that he
gave his only son. You know,nothing can separate us from his
love. But you're right.
I mean, when you're hurting thatbad and when, when you've had a
a devastating loss and inaddition, a disappointment. In
(11:13):
God. That's pretty you know,God, what happened? God, you
know, why? You know, how couldthis have happened?
We prayed, we sought you, what'swhat's the deal? You know, we
went through all that, you guys.We went through all of that. And
we were upset, we were mad, wedidn't wanna talk to Him because
we just felt like Hedisappointed us. But again, we
(11:35):
understand theologically that Hewas not withholding both
healing, we were dealing withother factors in the spirit
realm, in the natural realm thatwere fighting against us, and we
just didn't win this battle.
But it wasn't God that we werefighting, and it wasn't his
(11:58):
fault, and so we knew that, butat the same time, we were just
so confused and so hurting. Butyou know, when someone is
hurting, for someone to go andput their arm around them and
say, I'm with you in this, I Ilove you, I'm with you in this,
(12:18):
you know, that's that's thekinda comfort that it says here,
the God of all comfort. And Paulgoes on to say, in the next
verse, verse four, he said, whocomforts us in all of our
trouble. So Paul, here he is,he's been through all kinds of
(12:39):
difficult situations, he's beenbeaten, he's been stoned. I
think we talked a lot about thisin the last podcast, I read
through a whole list of all thethings that he had been through,
left shipwrecked, and hisfriends turned against him, all
kinds of crazy stuff, and yet hesaid, God is the one who
(13:01):
comforts me in my trouble.
And then he goes on to say thatwe might comfort others with the
same comfort. And so that's hugeof Paul to say, you know, God
comforted me, so I'm gonnacomfort you. But nonetheless, I
think it's just a beautifulthought to know that no matter
what we go through, He loves us,and that He is there to comfort
(13:26):
us.
Jill LeBlanc (13:26):
Can I just read this this other passage?
Charlie LeBlanc (13:29):
Please.
Jill LeBlanc (13:30):
It's a continuation of the one that I
just, spoke about, I've chosenyou and will not throw you away.
And then it goes on in Isaiah 41verse 10. Don't be afraid for I
am with you.
Charlie LeBlanc (13:44):
Yeah. There you go.
Jill LeBlanc (13:45):
Don't be discouraged for I am your God. I
will strengthen you and helpyou. I will hold you up with my
victorious right hand. Yeah.And, you know, especially when
we're in that place especiallyin the early weeks and months
and days, you know, we just feellike we can't even get out of
(14:10):
bed in the morning.
Charlie LeBlanc (14:10):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (14:11):
And especially if we don't have a particular
reason to. But God is there tostrengthen you and help you with
with this journey that you'rewalking through.
Charlie LeBlanc (14:23):
Yes.
Jill LeBlanc (14:24):
Thank God. He is a God of all comfort.
Charlie LeBlanc (14:26):
Yes. He is. And and his presence is his comfort.
Like you said, I will be withyou.
You know, and again, we didn'tfeel His presence at the time.
We didn't feel anything but painand hurt and discouragement. But
that's the thing about a lovingGod, a loving Father, is that
(14:47):
when you're hurting and you'redisappointed, you know, to have,
to know that God can come andjust hold you and hug you, and
in fact, even carry you, as youtalked about, He won't reject
us. But another scripture that,it's just simple scriptures, but
(15:08):
again, they just affirm thatwhat I'm going through, I'm not
alone, and that he's notrebuking me for it, you know?
And that's what I think we needto encourage people a lot,
because we had a friend of ourscall us who's a woman of God,
she lost her husband, and sheshe was a strong woman of God,
(15:30):
she knew God, she knew faith,she knew Jesus loved her, And
and one day she called uscrying.
Jill LeBlanc (15:36):
And it was like eight or nine months after her
husband passed away.
Charlie LeBlanc (15:39):
That's right.
Jill LeBlanc (15:39):
It wasn't like eight or nine days or weeks. It
was several months later.
Charlie LeBlanc (15:44):
Yeah. And she called and she was just crying
and said, I know I'm notsupposed to be crying. I know
God loves me. I know the Lord,but I just miss Britt. I miss my
husband so much.
And I come home to an emptyhouse and and I just, the pain
of of the loss is is beyondwords. She went on and on and
(16:04):
on.
Jill LeBlanc (16:06):
She was feeling so bad.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:07):
She was feeling guilty.
Jill LeBlanc (16:08):
Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:09):
Yeah. For mourning, for grieving over the
loss of her loved one.
Jill LeBlanc (16:14):
Oh, almost like if, you know, if you really have
the victory in the Lord and youreally trust God and you're
really in faith and all this,your emotions are just, you
know, carnal.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:28):
Right. They're just even demonic.
Jill LeBlanc (16:30):
Well, yeah. Take it another step. Some people
look at it that way too.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:34):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (16:35):
But what did we say to her?
Charlie LeBlanc (16:38):
Oh, we said cry all you want. I said, in fact,
it's healthy to cry. When you'regrieving and mourning over the
loss of a loved one, reallytears is is really a part of
your love for them. The more youloved, the more you grieve, the
more you hurt, the more youlove, the more you mourn, the
more you love, the more you cry.And we found that true, I think
(17:03):
I mentioned the last time or inone of the podcasts that I went
to our doctor and I said, I needsome help, I'm crying all the
time, I can't stop crying.
And he said, Charlie, it'snormal, you know. And he
encouraged me, you know, not toget on drugs, but to just let it
flow, let it We wrote that song,Let It Flow, talking about the
Holy Spirit, need to let therivers of tears, just let it
(17:28):
flow, let it come out. I mean,like we've discussed, there are
many times that grief wouldbuild up in our hearts, it would
just be getting worse, and we'dstart to get irritable, And then
I would realize this is grief.And I would just go into my
(17:50):
study and I would just get on myknees and I would just break and
I would just cry. And I mean,I'd give a gusher of tears and
brokenness.
It would last maybe five, maybeten minutes. And then I'd get up
and I'd go, I feel better. Yeah.I feel better. I feel good. I
(18:15):
feel good now.
Jill LeBlanc (18:16):
It's like a cleansing. It's a cleansing.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:18):
Yes, I needed to do that. It was and it didn't
hurt me. It didn't make me gobackwards in my grief journey.
In fact, it moved me forward inmy healing. That's what's so
amazing.
It moved me forward in myhealing.
Jill LeBlanc (18:39):
There is healing in grieving.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:41):
There is. And to know that he is with us, that
he loves us, Matthew 5:4,"Blessed are those who mourn for
they shall be comforted."
Jill LeBlanc (18:50):
That's right.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:50):
Isn't that something? Is that a beatitude,
right?
Jill LeBlanc (18:53):
Mhmm.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:53):
Blessed are those who mourn for they shall
be comforted.
Jill LeBlanc (18:57):
Jesus said-
Charlie LeBlanc (18:58):
He didn't say, I rebuke you if you mourn. No.
He said, blessed, blessed,blessed are those who mourn.
Jill LeBlanc (19:08):
Wow. You know, we wrote about in our book about
this this man named Colin MurrayParks and one of one of the
quotes from this book which hasbecome so famous is pain at loss
or heartache or, you know, thecrying over, you know, mourning
(19:30):
and all that. It's the price wepay for love. Yes. The more we
love someone, the more we grieveover losing them on this side of
heaven.
Charlie LeBlanc (19:41):
That's right. That's true.
Jill LeBlanc (19:43):
It's love. It's it's part of your the love that
you have for them being releasedand, you know, manifested.
Charlie LeBlanc (19:52):
Yeah, and thank God for his comfort to help us
through all this. It doesn'tmean that His comfort is gonna
make us not cry anymore, notgive- It just means that He's
gonna put a blanket over us oflove, put His arms around us,
carry us through these difficulttimes, and He will walk with us.
Jill LeBlanc (20:15):
Yes.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:15):
You know, like you wrote that song.
Jill LeBlanc (20:20):
He walks With Me Through Valleys.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:23):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (20:25):
He carries me when my heart is faint.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:27):
Yeah. It's a beautiful song. We need to play
that one for for you guyssometime.
Jill LeBlanc (20:32):
Yeah, it's called So Thankful. If like to look it
up somewhere, it's called SoThankful.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:37):
Your Love Remains album. But nonetheless,
He does walk with us and Hedoesn't rebuke us, He walks with
us through the valley, is thisin Psalm 23, it's even though I
walk through the valley of theshadow of death, I will fear no
evil for thou art with me, youknow? So through these difficult
(21:02):
times, through these painfultimes, He does walk with us, and
we got so much more to shareabout this that we will be
sharing in the next episode, andthe next episode after that, but
we just wanted to emphasize theGod of all comfort today, and we
have a special song.
Jill LeBlanc (21:20):
Yeah, we have a song called The God of All
Comfort that we wrote after ourson passed away
Charlie LeBlanc (21:29):
Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc (21:29):
When we began to experience the God of all
comfort. So we're going to playa nature video for you that we
put together. It's justbeautiful scenes from nature as
the song plays. And but beforewe go there, we hope that you
enjoyed this talk that we wereable to share with you today and
(21:52):
please subscribe to the podcastif you haven't already and and
select notifications so you'llnever miss an episode and please
share it with someone that youfeel needs to hear this.
Because we just want our heartsare to reach hurting people to
just help bring healing to helpprepare a bed of that that
(22:17):
wouldn't be conducive to thehealing flow of the Lord's love
to you. So, and then also wewant to mention our book. It's
called When Loss Comes Close toHome and it's, as John Tesh
said, I don't know if you got tosee the second interview we did
with him, or maybe it was thethird one. He said, this book is
(22:41):
like a Swiss army knife to helppeople get through grief and
then to help others know how towalk with their hurting friend.
And it's just full of a lot ofpractical instruction, practical
stories, practical tips thatwill help you get through what
you're going through and helpthe other ones know how to help
(23:06):
you better.
Charlie LeBlanc (23:07):
That's right.
Jill LeBlanc (23:07):
So it's very useful. You can get it. You can
go to our website,charlieandjill.com. All that's
down below. We've got an audioand downloadable ebook.
Charlie LeBlanc (23:19):
Yeah. So what a blessing. Thank you so much for
being with us today, and reallystay tuned for this song.
Again, listen to it, let us knowhow you like it.
Jill LeBlanc (23:30):
And let the Lord just minister to your heart as
it plays.
Charlie LeBlanc (23:34):
Yeah, and then also, if watching it, you'll
enjoy it as well. So God blessyou. We love you so much. Thank
you for joining us. We'll seeyou next time.
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode
of our Finding Hope podcast.
Jill LeBlanc (00:12):
Getting Through What You Never Asked For.
Charlie LeBlanc (00:15):
That's right. What an amazing subtitle that we
came up with. Actually, ourproducer came up with it. It was
pretty cool. But yeah, GettingThrough What You Never Asked
For.
And there's so many things inlife that we are faced with that
we never asked for, we neverexpected, we never wanted, and I
(00:36):
feel so much for people who havebeen through tragedies, through
divorces, through deaths in thefamily, through losing jobs,
losing investments, all kinds ofdifferent tragedies that happen
in our lives. And our hope inthis podcast is to encourage you
to not lose hope, to find hope,to get through these difficult
(01:00):
things. And it takes time to getthrough some of these things.
Jill LeBlanc (01:03):
Oh, it takes a lot of time.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:05):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (01:05):
I've been working on a devotional.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:07):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (01:08):
And just in this writing, just just to relive
some of our moments just to andto think about other people
we've talked to through theyears that are in a a new season
of of mourning because of a lossin their life. It just takes so
much time.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:25):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (01:26):
And it's not like you ever get through it, but
just to kinda get back on yourfeet again.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:31):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (01:32):
It, you just have to give time. You have to give
yourself space. You have to giveyourself permission to go there
and just work with this newnormal, new season in your life.
I even hate to call it a newnormal, because, you know, we
don't want to identify withgrief as being our new normal,
(01:56):
but it's just part of thejourney.
Charlie LeBlanc (01:58):
Yeah. I think we do definitely, as we've
experienced after sixteen yearsafter losing Beau, by the way,
Beau's gonna be turning 40 yearsold this May, May 14th, and so
we're gonna get together withour girls and celebrate,
although I'm sure it's timelessin heaven, but nonetheless it's
(02:19):
important to us, it means a lotto us to think that-
Jill LeBlanc (02:21):
But you know about that I feel, this is how I feel
about birthdays from people thathave passed on.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:27):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (02:28):
If they were never born on the earth, they won't be
in, they wouldn't be in heavenright now if they're already
there.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:36):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (02:36):
And so I bet you well, I think heaven is gonna be
a party every day. It's gonna becontinual party. But, you know,
there's probably something aboutbirthdays in heaven because
they're celebrating a personthat was born that God loved and
brought brought to heaven.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:54):
I think so.
Jill LeBlanc (02:55):
I think it's kind of a cool thought.
Charlie LeBlanc (02:57):
It is cool. But anyway, so yeah, so you know,
we're here to support you inthese anniversaries, these
birthdays, these situations thatyou confront, we just went
through Easter and I know a lotof people, we have Mother's Day
coming up, and as you said,Jill, you've been working on
this devotional and you'reremembering all these people
(03:19):
that have lost loved ones, andobviously we're remembering our
loss. But you know, God hashelped us after sixteen years,
we talked about time, you know,it takes time It does. To get
through these things. I mean,people try to rush you, people
try to tell you you need to doit this way, you need to, you
know, clean out your closet,your loved one's closet, you
(03:41):
need to do all these differentthings, but there's no timetable
for grief there's no timetablefor mourning.
And as we know, Ecclesiastessays, there's a time to mourn,
you know, there's a time fortears, there's a time for
everything under heaven,so, uh...
Jill LeBlanc (03:58):
And and you don't really, you never know. You
never know when it's going tohit you. Just like that young
man you spokewith whose mother died.
Charlie LeBlanc (04:07):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (04:09):
And even though it's been a couple years, still,
he's he was turning 21 and thatjust made him miss his mom
because he wasn't she wasn'tthere for that milestone in his
life and you just never knowwhat's gonna trigger something
in your heart and, someonewished me a happy Easter in a
(04:33):
text and I think she saidsomething like, we'll all be
together soon in heaven orsomething like that and and made
a comment about, you know,thinking about us and Beau not
being here with us. Oh my gosh,it just kinda took me to the
place. I mean, I was totally notthere at all. And and just
(04:56):
hearing her reach out in lovetook me took me there.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:00):
Yeah. Took us there. But again, we don't
wanna, we don't mind that.
Jill LeBlanc (05:04):
Right.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:05):
We'd rather be reminded and go to that place
than to than for people to avoidthe subject.
Jill LeBlanc (05:13):
Absolutely.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:14):
You know, oh happy Mother's Day, Jill, you
know, and don't say anythingabout, you must be really
missing your son, you know.Although it takes us back to,
yeah, I do miss my son, but youappreciate them mentioning his
name and saying so yeah, there'sa lot of mothers out there that
you're facing this Mother's Daywithout your loved one, without
(05:37):
one of your child, childrenpossibly, and and just want you
to know we're standing with you.We pray for you. We love you.
It's a it's a difficult time.People just don't don't
understand that.
Jill LeBlanc (05:49):
Yeah. In Isaiah 40, I was just reading that the
one of the things God told us todo is comfort my people.
Charlie LeBlanc (05:58):
Yes.
Jill LeBlanc (05:59):
And He is a God of all comfort and He cares for us
when we're hurting. He cares forus all the time. He just loves
us all the time.
Charlie LeBlanc (06:08):
Yes, He does.
Jill LeBlanc (06:09):
But He wants us to comfort each other. And so we
pray that as we share somethings from the Bible this
morning that or today, that youwill receive some comfort if you
need comforting. And maybeanother time when you don't need
it right now, but you might needit later, that these these
thoughts will come back to youand help you.
Charlie LeBlanc (06:30):
That's right. And so in light of this, I do
wanna start with a scripturethat jumped out of the page to
me back when we were really,really grieving, and that's in 2
Corinthians, the first chapter,and the third and fourth verse,
but I'm gonna talk mainly aboutthe third verse right now, it
(06:52):
says, "Blessed be the God andFather of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and theGod of all comfort." You know,
it's interesting, I had readthis scripture for so many
years, I'd even written a songcalled Father of Mercies that
that were recorded in 1991 on analbum called Run to Him.
Jill LeBlanc (07:16):
Thirty years ago.
Charlie LeBlanc (07:17):
And and and, you know, we we wrote scripture,
we sang scripture, weexperienced a lot of God's love
and God's peace in scripture,but when we needed it the most,
when we were broken, when wewere hurting, that's when all of
(07:39):
a sudden these kind ofscriptures jumped out of the
page, and they continue to jumpout of the page for me that I
read things about God's love,his compassion, his comfort in
suffering and in pain, and itjumps out of the page, for me
and to me. And this is whathappened in this situation. All
(08:00):
of a sudden, I saw God is theGod of all comfort? What? You
know, I knew him as a God ofmiracles, a God of redemption.
He forgave my sins. I knew Godas as, like, the the one that
walked on the water who fed the5,000. You know, I knew him as
(08:21):
the king of kings and lord oflords. And and I I knew him as
as someone that I could pray toand and and I could have
fellowship with and worship, ofcourse, we're worship leaders,
we have worshiped him all of ourlife and enjoyed his amazing
presence. But I didn't see himas the God of all comfort, That
(08:45):
was so weird.
It it was not weird, but newto me.
Jill LeBlanc (08:50):
Because you didn't really need it.
Charlie LeBlanc (08:51):
I didn't need it. No.
Jill LeBlanc (08:52):
So much before. I mean, you encountered
challenging times through yourlife.
Charlie LeBlanc (08:57):
Yeah. Sure.
Jill LeBlanc (08:58):
Through, you know, through your whole Christian
life even, but not maybe to thepoint that you felt you needed
comfort
Charlie LeBlanc (09:06):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (09:06):
From Him.
Charlie LeBlanc (09:07):
Right. Until. Until this. Yeah. And again, I
didn't really know what thatlooked like, or what that would
be like, but when I read thisscripture and saw that He was
the God of all comfort, thenthat did something on the inside
(09:29):
of me, because all of a sudden Irealized He's not condemning me
for grieving.
He's not mad at me for beingdisappointed. No, He comes
alongside of me and He, in asense, puts His arm around me.
Yeah. And that's a beautiful,beautiful thing, is that he is
(09:53):
the God of all comfort, so whenwe're hurting, he comes
alongside of us and holds us,puts his arm around us, and I
don't wanna get ahead of myself,but even weeps with us when we
weep.
Jill LeBlanc (10:10):
You know, just read a scripture here a little
bit ago from Isaiah 41 and inverse 9 at the end of it, well,
the whole thing says, I'vecalled you back from the ends of
the earth saying you are myservant. But at the end of this
verse, it says, for I havechosen you and I will not throw
you away.
Charlie LeBlanc (10:30):
Praise God.
Jill LeBlanc (10:32):
Yeah. Ain't that beautiful? I mean, even when we
feel like we're on the trashheap because everything has just
fallen apart. He said he willnot throw us away because He's,
we are valuable to him.
Charlie LeBlanc (10:46):
Oh, yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (10:46):
He loves us so much.
Charlie LeBlanc (10:48):
He does. He loves us with an unending love.
We know all the scriptures, forGod so loved the world that he
gave his only son. You know,nothing can separate us from his
love. But you're right.
I mean, when you're hurting thatbad and when, when you've had a
a devastating loss and inaddition, a disappointment. In
(11:13):
God. That's pretty you know,God, what happened? God, you
know, why? You know, how couldthis have happened?
We prayed, we sought you, what'swhat's the deal? You know, we
went through all that, you guys.We went through all of that. And
we were upset, we were mad, wedidn't wanna talk to Him because
we just felt like Hedisappointed us. But again, we
(11:35):
understand theologically that Hewas not withholding both
healing, we were dealing withother factors in the spirit
realm, in the natural realm thatwere fighting against us, and we
just didn't win this battle.
But it wasn't God that we werefighting, and it wasn't his
(11:58):
fault, and so we knew that, butat the same time, we were just
so confused and so hurting. Butyou know, when someone is
hurting, for someone to go andput their arm around them and
say, I'm with you in this, I Ilove you, I'm with you in this,
(12:18):
you know, that's that's thekinda comfort that it says here,
the God of all comfort. And Paulgoes on to say, in the next
verse, verse four, he said, whocomforts us in all of our
trouble. So Paul, here he is,he's been through all kinds of
(12:39):
difficult situations, he's beenbeaten, he's been stoned. I
think we talked a lot about thisin the last podcast, I read
through a whole list of all thethings that he had been through,
left shipwrecked, and hisfriends turned against him, all
kinds of crazy stuff, and yet hesaid, God is the one who
(13:01):
comforts me in my trouble.
And then he goes on to say thatwe might comfort others with the
same comfort. And so that's hugeof Paul to say, you know, God
comforted me, so I'm gonnacomfort you. But nonetheless, I
think it's just a beautifulthought to know that no matter
what we go through, He loves us,and that He is there to comfort
(13:26):
us.
Jill LeBlanc (13:26):
Can I just read this this other passage?
Charlie LeBlanc (13:29):
Please.
Jill LeBlanc (13:30):
It's a continuation of the one that I
just, spoke about, I've chosenyou and will not throw you away.
And then it goes on in Isaiah 41verse 10. Don't be afraid for I
am with you.
Charlie LeBlanc (13:44):
Yeah. There you go.
Jill LeBlanc (13:45):
Don't be discouraged for I am your God. I
will strengthen you and helpyou. I will hold you up with my
victorious right hand. Yeah.And, you know, especially when
we're in that place especiallyin the early weeks and months
and days, you know, we just feellike we can't even get out of
(14:10):
bed in the morning.
Charlie LeBlanc (14:10):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (14:11):
And especially if we don't have a particular
reason to. But God is there tostrengthen you and help you with
with this journey that you'rewalking through.
Charlie LeBlanc (14:23):
Yes.
Jill LeBlanc (14:24):
Thank God. He is a God of all comfort.
Charlie LeBlanc (14:26):
Yes. He is. And and his presence is his comfort.
Like you said, I will be withyou.
You know, and again, we didn'tfeel His presence at the time.
We didn't feel anything but painand hurt and discouragement. But
that's the thing about a lovingGod, a loving Father, is that
(14:47):
when you're hurting and you'redisappointed, you know, to have,
to know that God can come andjust hold you and hug you, and
in fact, even carry you, as youtalked about, He won't reject
us. But another scripture that,it's just simple scriptures, but
(15:08):
again, they just affirm thatwhat I'm going through, I'm not
alone, and that he's notrebuking me for it, you know?
And that's what I think we needto encourage people a lot,
because we had a friend of ourscall us who's a woman of God,
she lost her husband, and sheshe was a strong woman of God,
(15:30):
she knew God, she knew faith,she knew Jesus loved her, And
and one day she called uscrying.
Jill LeBlanc (15:36):
And it was like eight or nine months after her
husband passed away.
Charlie LeBlanc (15:39):
That's right.
Jill LeBlanc (15:39):
It wasn't like eight or nine days or weeks. It
was several months later.
Charlie LeBlanc (15:44):
Yeah. And she called and she was just crying
and said, I know I'm notsupposed to be crying. I know
God loves me. I know the Lord,but I just miss Britt. I miss my
husband so much.
And I come home to an emptyhouse and and I just, the pain
of of the loss is is beyondwords. She went on and on and
(16:04):
on.
Jill LeBlanc (16:06):
She was feeling so bad.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:07):
She was feeling guilty.
Jill LeBlanc (16:08):
Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:09):
Yeah. For mourning, for grieving over the
loss of her loved one.
Jill LeBlanc (16:14):
Oh, almost like if, you know, if you really have
the victory in the Lord and youreally trust God and you're
really in faith and all this,your emotions are just, you
know, carnal.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:28):
Right. They're just even demonic.
Jill LeBlanc (16:30):
Well, yeah. Take it another step. Some people
look at it that way too.
Charlie LeBlanc (16:34):
Right.
Jill LeBlanc (16:35):
But what did we say to her?
Charlie LeBlanc (16:38):
Oh, we said cry all you want. I said, in fact,
it's healthy to cry. When you'regrieving and mourning over the
loss of a loved one, reallytears is is really a part of
your love for them. The more youloved, the more you grieve, the
more you hurt, the more youlove, the more you mourn, the
more you love, the more you cry.And we found that true, I think
(17:03):
I mentioned the last time or inone of the podcasts that I went
to our doctor and I said, I needsome help, I'm crying all the
time, I can't stop crying.
And he said, Charlie, it'snormal, you know. And he
encouraged me, you know, not toget on drugs, but to just let it
flow, let it We wrote that song,Let It Flow, talking about the
Holy Spirit, need to let therivers of tears, just let it
(17:28):
flow, let it come out. I mean,like we've discussed, there are
many times that grief wouldbuild up in our hearts, it would
just be getting worse, and we'dstart to get irritable, And then
I would realize this is grief.And I would just go into my
(17:50):
study and I would just get on myknees and I would just break and
I would just cry. And I mean,I'd give a gusher of tears and
brokenness.
It would last maybe five, maybeten minutes. And then I'd get up
and I'd go, I feel better. Yeah.I feel better. I feel good. I
(18:15):
feel good now.
Jill LeBlanc (18:16):
It's like a cleansing. It's a cleansing.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:18):
Yes, I needed to do that. It was and it didn't
hurt me. It didn't make me gobackwards in my grief journey.
In fact, it moved me forward inmy healing. That's what's so
amazing.
It moved me forward in myhealing.
Jill LeBlanc (18:39):
There is healing in grieving.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:41):
There is. And to know that he is with us, that
he loves us, Matthew 5:4,"Blessed are those who mourn for
they shall be comforted."
Jill LeBlanc (18:50):
That's right.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:50):
Isn't that something? Is that a beatitude,
right?
Jill LeBlanc (18:53):
Mhmm.
Charlie LeBlanc (18:53):
Blessed are those who mourn for they shall
be comforted.
Jill LeBlanc (18:57):
Jesus said-
Charlie LeBlanc (18:58):
He didn't say, I rebuke you if you mourn. No.
He said, blessed, blessed,blessed are those who mourn.
Jill LeBlanc (19:08):
Wow. You know, we wrote about in our book about
this this man named Colin MurrayParks and one of one of the
quotes from this book which hasbecome so famous is pain at loss
or heartache or, you know, thecrying over, you know, mourning
(19:30):
and all that. It's the price wepay for love. Yes. The more we
love someone, the more we grieveover losing them on this side of
heaven.
Charlie LeBlanc (19:41):
That's right. That's true.
Jill LeBlanc (19:43):
It's love. It's it's part of your the love that
you have for them being releasedand, you know, manifested.
Charlie LeBlanc (19:52):
Yeah, and thank God for his comfort to help us
through all this. It doesn'tmean that His comfort is gonna
make us not cry anymore, notgive- It just means that He's
gonna put a blanket over us oflove, put His arms around us,
carry us through these difficulttimes, and He will walk with us.
Jill LeBlanc (20:15):
Yes.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:15):
You know, like you wrote that song.
Jill LeBlanc (20:20):
He walks With Me Through Valleys.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:23):
Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc (20:25):
He carries me when my heart is faint.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:27):
Yeah. It's a beautiful song. We need to play
that one for for you guyssometime.
Jill LeBlanc (20:32):
Yeah, it's called So Thankful. If like to look it
up somewhere, it's called SoThankful.
Charlie LeBlanc (20:37):
Your Love Remains album. But nonetheless,
He does walk with us and Hedoesn't rebuke us, He walks with
us through the valley, is thisin Psalm 23, it's even though I
walk through the valley of theshadow of death, I will fear no
evil for thou art with me, youknow? So through these difficult
(21:02):
times, through these painfultimes, He does walk with us, and
we got so much more to shareabout this that we will be
sharing in the next episode, andthe next episode after that, but
we just wanted to emphasize theGod of all comfort today, and we
have a special song.
Jill LeBlanc (21:20):
Yeah, we have a song called The God of All
Comfort that we wrote after ourson passed away
Charlie LeBlanc (21:29):
Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc (21:29):
When we began to experience the God of all
comfort. So we're going to playa nature video for you that we
put together. It's justbeautiful scenes from nature as
the song plays. And but beforewe go there, we hope that you
enjoyed this talk that we wereable to share with you today and
(21:52):
please subscribe to the podcastif you haven't already and and
select notifications so you'llnever miss an episode and please
share it with someone that youfeel needs to hear this.
Because we just want our heartsare to reach hurting people to
just help bring healing to helpprepare a bed of that that
(22:17):
wouldn't be conducive to thehealing flow of the Lord's love
to you. So, and then also wewant to mention our book. It's
called When Loss Comes Close toHome and it's, as John Tesh
said, I don't know if you got tosee the second interview we did
with him, or maybe it was thethird one. He said, this book is
(22:41):
like a Swiss army knife to helppeople get through grief and
then to help others know how towalk with their hurting friend.
And it's just full of a lot ofpractical instruction, practical
stories, practical tips thatwill help you get through what
you're going through and helpthe other ones know how to help
(23:06):
you better.
Charlie LeBlanc (23:07):
That's right.
Jill LeBlanc (23:07):
So it's very useful. You can get it. You can
go to our website,charlieandjill.com. All that's
down below. We've got an audioand downloadable ebook.
Charlie LeBlanc (23:19):
Yeah. So what a blessing. Thank you so much for
being with us today, and reallystay tuned for this song.
Again, listen to it, let us knowhow you like it.
Jill LeBlanc (23:30):
And let the Lord just minister to your heart as
it plays.
Charlie LeBlanc (23:34):
Yeah, and then also, if watching it, you'll
enjoy it as well. So God blessyou. We love you so much. Thank
you for joining us. We'll seeyou next time.
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