- Pastor Lucado, thank youso much for joining me.

- It's my honor, I wish it wasunder better circumstances.

But even so, it's great to be with you.

- A lot of people are grieving.

This feels a lot like grief,

what you experiencewhen you lose something

or lose someone, is thathow it feels for you?

- That is so perceptive on your part.

I've been thinking about that quite a bit

because I've been postingquite a few online

messages inviting people topost their prayer request.

As I read over those prayer requests,

it sounds like grief, it feels like grief.

When I look in my ownheart, it feels like grief.

Now, I've been using the word "anxiety"

to describe our predominant emotion

and I do think it is, still.

But I do think that griefis a part of all this.

You know, at its core, griefis an unmet expectation.

It's an unmet expectation.

We expected to have moretime with our loved one.

We expected to grow old with our wife.

We expected to be healthy.

And, so, when people are grieving,

some expectation of life has gone unmet.

And that's really whatwe're dealing with here.

We expected, we expected,to enter into another year

protected and safe becausewe've come to expect that.

- What are some emotionaltools that Americans

can call upon to get through this?

- The Bible is a story of how

God gets people through things.

My goodness, where do you notfind God delivering people?

It's a story of deliverance.

You know, Joseph in the famine.

The Hebrews in Egyptian captivity.

The Hebrews again in Babylonian captivity.

So we're gonna get through it.

Weeping may come in the night.

But joy comes in the morning.

So, first of all, let's just say,

"Okay, somehow, God isgonna get us through this."

Number two, allow yourself time to grieve.

If this indeed is grief,

I don't know any pastor,I don't know any counselor

who says dismiss and deny yourself grief.

Nobody does that.

That stiff upper lip stuff doesn't work.

It's certainly not a part of the Bible.

When King David learned of thedeath of Saul and Jonathan,

he called the nation to mourn,he commanded that they mourn.

Mourning is just a partof getting through stuff.

As I've said it so many times,

forgive me if you'vealready heard me say this,

but give yourself a good meltdown.

And sometimes we need two or three a day.

Just let it go, let it go,air your complaint before God.

Talk to Him honestly.

Get on your knees, get on your belly.

You know, we need to callin all of our forces.

This is a time for thechurch to be the church.

It's a defining moment inthe history of the church.

It's a time for us to give encouragement,

a time for us to share the Gospel.

Time for us to tell peoplethat God is in control.

To remind people that,yeah, this is a wake-up call

for the whole planet.

We've all been remindedof the brevity of life.

The frailty of health.

We need a god and thank God He's there.

So this is our message, thisis our opportunity to share it.

What appears to be evil,God is gonna use for good.

- Pastor Max Lucado, thank you so much

for sharing with us and I pray

that you and your family stay safe.

- Thank you, it's always agreat treat to talk to ya.