Episode 24
Weep With Those Who Weep

Jill LeBlanc:
00:05

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us again today. It’s been an incredible week this last seven days since we came to you last and we are encouraged in the word of God and in just so many things, but we hope to not be offensive to anyone, but we want to talk about these things that happened last week when our brother Charlie Kirk was assassinated. So we hope that you can derive hope from these talks. They’ll be all scripture based, Jesus centered, and not political. But, you know, the Lord did put us in the world. Although we’re not of the world, we are in the world. So we just wanna talk about lots of different aspects today.

Charlie LeBlanc:
01:02

Yeah. Like you said, Jill, it’s been it’s been a real rough week. You know, a dear a dear brother has been killed, shot, and murdered, as you said. And, you know, so many people are just in shock and in mourning and in grieving. We’ve seen it all over the place, on both sides of the aisle even, people are mourning, and it’s a terrible thing, and we can feel the heaviness, and then that was on the tenth, and then that was on Tuesday, and then Wednesday.

Charlie LeBlanc:
01:36

On Wednesday, rather, and then Thursday was 9/11, which is where, you know, we saw all of the people reading the names of the victims, that had lost their lives in those Twin Towers.

Jill LeBlanc:
01:49

And all the other places as well.

Charlie LeBlanc:
01:52

Yeah, and to add to it, we had a dear friend die, just before all this, a dear friend, a minister, a wonderful woman of God, and, and we got news of that, and we were shocked. We got news of that about a week ago, and we were just in shock and and and mourning and grieving over her loss, and then Charlie Kirk, and then 9/11, so I know a lot of people are experiencing a similar thing, at least in light of the nineeleven twenty four years ago, but it never goes away, really.

Jill LeBlanc:
02:27

It doesn’t.

Charlie LeBlanc:
02:28

No.

Jill LeBlanc:
02:29

I mean, maybe temporarily, and it doesn’t always stay the same.

Charlie LeBlanc:
02:34

Right.

Jill LeBlanc:
02:34

But it never goes away.

Charlie LeBlanc:
02:36

No, it never does, and you know, we’ve been watching a lot of news and stuff, and I’ve been really blessed and encouraged by some of the newscasters, that they seem to really understand the pain of loss.

Jill LeBlanc:
02:49

Some of them, yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
02:50

Yeah, and that really means a lot to me because, you know, maybe they’ve had close losses in their family or something, and so they understand that pain, but one of them said that, in watching the 9/11 ceremonies, they said it never really goes away. They’re always thinking about their loved ones, and it’s really true, I mean, especially in a tragic accident like that, or not accident,

Jill LeBlanc:
03:17

Attack.

Charlie LeBlanc:
03:18

Attack, yeah, that they, you know, they’ll never forget that their loved one was in those towers and how they came crashing down on them. That is horrific.

Jill LeBlanc:
03:30

Yeah. It’s horrific. As well as on the planes.

Charlie LeBlanc:
03:33

Right. Absolutely, Both planes. Yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
03:37

And then there’s the Pentagon, then there’s Pennsylvania.

Charlie LeBlanc:
03:41

Pennsylvania, those two planes, yeah. So yeah, it’s a hard thing, and God gives us grace to step through these things. We’re thinking about Charlie’s wife and two little kids, you know.

Jill LeBlanc:
03:58

And his parents. Yeah, and the parents, I mean, it just goes on and on. The pain, we know that, you know, President Trump and a lot of the leadership are grieving heavily. We’ve heard them share their hearts, in tears even. I know Andrew Wommack had a special tribute to Charlie Kirk last night at his Truth and Liberty conference, where Charlie was supposed to be speaking He last was the guest speaker for last night.

Jill LeBlanc:
04:28

Which was at the time of- We’re recording this actually two days after his assassination, but it’ll come to you a few days after that. So yeah, just last night, he was supposed to speak at that, which was the day after he was taken down.

Charlie LeBlanc:
04:45

Exactly. And so, and I thought it was such a blessing that they had a panel, each one of them shared their heart. Each one of them knew, well, just about every one of them in the panel knew Charlie on a personal way, and had ministered with him at different times. And then they zoomed in a couple of other people that also knew Charlie really well. One of them was in tears more than once.

Charlie LeBlanc:
05:12

It’s just so hard when you have a loved one, or someone that you love is taken from you so quickly. It’s like one day you’re texting with them, visiting with them, and the next day they’re gone, you know?

Jill LeBlanc:
05:28

Right, how many people have that with car accidents?

Charlie LeBlanc:
05:33

Oh yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
05:33

Oh my gosh.

Charlie LeBlanc:
05:34

Yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
05:35

And just so many different things, heart attacks, sudden heart attack.

Charlie LeBlanc:
05:40

Absolutely. And we have very close friends that have experienced both of those. One dear, sweet lady, a minister in Colorado, her son was killed in a car crash, and bam, you know, they had, he was living at home, he was a senior in high school, and he was, a pro athlete, or one of the best athletes there, head of the Christian club and everything, and bam, they get the message. Everyone else in the car survived, he didn’t. And I just remember being over their house as soon as we could get over there and visiting with them and they showed us his room, that they still had all of his things in his room.

Jill LeBlanc:
06:18

Yeah, it was so recent.

Charlie LeBlanc:
06:21

Yeah, just definitely so hard. And then your dear girlfriend that you grew up with, her husband dropping dead in her bathroom. In their home. In their yeah. And you know, here’s the thing, we’re not trying to be, you know, downer, downer, downer.

Charlie LeBlanc:
06:38

It’s just, we’re just trying to be real. Life is filled with great joys and great victories and a lot of, you know, wonderful people and wonderful things, and we need to rejoice in that. But there’s also a lot of tragedy and a lot of pain in this world, and it’s been going on since the beginning, murders and assassinations and accidents and losses and even martyrdom, like Stephen, you know, that I may read a little bit of that in a minute, but you know, there’s a lot of pain in the world, and we need to, I think you and I have been asked by the Lord to address that because it’s not talked about as much, because people always want to talk about the victory, talked about good things, which praise God, we love victory. We love, you know, when people get saved, when people get healed, when good things happen, people get raises, people find the love of their life, weddings, and so on. We love it, we rejoice.

Charlie LeBlanc:
07:49

But it brings me back to the newsletter that we just put out. It was called Weep with Those Who Weep, and it’s taken from what that Romans, is it Romans 12:15, I think it is, says, Rejoice with those who rejoice, but weep with those who weep. And we even said in the newsletter that, you know, we’ve got the first part down, you know, to rejoice.

Jill LeBlanc:
08:14

Got that really well.

Charlie LeBlanc:
08:15

Yeah, we got that down really good, when someone has a defeat in their life, when someone passes, when someone goes through a divorce, when someone is hurting, they lose that job. Know, we have a very close relative right now that is dealing with a lot of hardship, and one thing after another is turning bad in her life, and it’s just piling up. And you know, our heart goes out to her, we pray for her, and we stand with her, and we weep with her, know, weep with those who weep.

Jill LeBlanc:
08:56

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
08:57

And what does the scripture say about bearing one another’s burdens?

Jill LeBlanc:
09:00

That’s right, absolutely.

Charlie LeBlanc:
09:02

Yeah, that’s part of our responsibility in our ministry, is to help those who are hurting.

Jill LeBlanc:
09:12

Yeah, I was looking up different translations, that’s Galatians 6:2. And boy, it’s so strong.

Charlie LeBlanc:
09:21

Yeah, I know you read them to me this morning. I was like, woah, that’s powerful.

Jill LeBlanc:
09:25

I’m trying to remember which one I read to you.

Charlie LeBlanc:
09:29

I think you remember the amplified classic.

Jill LeBlanc:
09:30

That’s what it was. Yeah. And that was 6:2.

Charlie LeBlanc:
09:36

Yeah, in fact, I think I might have written it down in our

Jill LeBlanc:
09:38

Yeah. My notes. It was- Was, it Oh, I’ve got two. Galatians 2. No, it’s Galatians 6:2.

Jill LeBlanc:
09:46

And it says, Bear, endure, and carry one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults. And in this way, fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ, the Messiah, and complete what is lacking in your obedience to it. But the part that stood out to us was you know, bear or endure one another’s burdens and troublesome moral failures. Maybe the person is really making poor choices, not living right, and we have to endure that and bear it. And, you know, but this is good.

Jill LeBlanc:
10:35

This is a good word because we have a tendency when someone doesn’t make good choices to want to just, you know.

Charlie LeBlanc:
10:44

Yeah, they’re getting what they deserve.

Jill LeBlanc:
10:45

Yeah, all that.

Charlie LeBlanc:
10:46

All that.

Jill LeBlanc:
10:48

This is not the law of Christ. Know, the other translations like New Living is pretty basic, share each other’s burdens and in this way, obey the law of Christ. And what is the law of Christ? Jesus said, I give you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. And a commandment is a law.

Charlie LeBlanc:
11:14

And you love your neighbor as yourself.

Jill LeBlanc:
11:16

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
11:16

You love me and you love them. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
11:19

Love one another.

Jill LeBlanc:
11:20

Yeah. So that’s the law of Christ. And we are to extend that to others.

Charlie LeBlanc:
11:27

Yeah. Right. And so that’s bearing someone’s burden if they’re going through hard times and as well as if they’re grieving. And that’s why we say, you know, weep with those who weep is kind of a lost art. It’s kind of something, I’ve been saved for what?

Jill LeBlanc:
11:46

Fifty. Fifty. Fifty years.

Charlie LeBlanc:
11:48

Fifty years, yeah. And I don’t know that I ever heard, at least my ears weren’t open to hear, anybody teaching on weep with those who weep. And that’s why this jumped out of the page to me years ago, when, before we wrote the book as well, and we have a whole chapter on weeping and crying and how important it is, but also this whole aspect of, you know, weeping with others, you know, we don’t know what to say sometimes, we don’t know what to do. And, you know, just to love someone enough to care enough, know, what is it, that saying that says people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, But to care enough to love people and to weep with them, even I remember we had a couple that ministered to us through our tragedy, and I remember them holding us and weeping, and I was like, woah, how in the world do they have that tender of a heart? You know, but they did, and of course, since our loss, I feel like Jeremiah, I’m the weeping prophet.

Charlie LeBlanc:
13:04

Seems like interview after interview, we just had an interview with Joyce Meyer on their podcast, and even in that one, I broke down several times. I can barely get through an interview without crying a little bit. And it’s like your heart breaks, and then when you have a loss like we have, and like so many others have, and then your heart is tender, and you care so much, you feel, you’re touched with the feelings like Jesus is, touched with the feelings of their infirmities. So, I think we just, as a church, need to have more compassion, and we need to, yeah, we to bear one another’s burdens and we need to weep with those who weep. We need to care enough to weep with them.

Jill LeBlanc:
13:54

Yeah. Listen to this in The Message translation, Galatians 6:2. It says, Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day is out.

Charlie LeBlanc:
14:16

That’s pretty good.

Jill LeBlanc:
14:17

Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed, share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you’re too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Charlie LeBlanc:
14:31

Yeah. Yeah, and you know, I think this crosses over into the grief side as well, or on the moral side. But the grief side, like, unfortunately, I hate to even go here, but in some circles, when someone is battling a disease and they die and everyone’s praying in faith for them to be healed and they die, unfortunately, the seed of judgment comes in. They start questioning, you know, Oh, well, they have sin in their life, or, Oh, you know, they weren’t believing, they weren’t standing in faith, they gave up, they wanted to go to heaven. We keep coming up with all these excuses, and really it’s judgment, and I’ve said it many times, I just feel like it’s so wrong to judge someone’s heart and someone’s faith.

Charlie LeBlanc:
15:29

I know at one point someone questioned my journey of going through the loss of Beau, and I was so offended because I thought, You don’t know, no one knows what we go through.

Jill LeBlanc:
15:45

That’s right.

Charlie LeBlanc:
15:46

And for people to question someone else’s grief journey is just really ungodly and unholy, because no one understands the depth of pain that people go through when they go through a loss. And I’ve said this quite often now too, that it’s like to me, process of Jesus healing our broken hearts is a holy process. It’s, you know, when you’re in pain and you have Jesus close to the brokenhearted and holding you, and mending your broken soul, that is a holy communion. It’s a beautiful thing between God and you.

Charlie LeBlanc:
16:33

And then someone comes walking along, like Job’s friends, and they go, Well, you know, you need to do this, or you shouldn’t have done that, or what about this? You know, and someone comes along to you and says, You need to get out of that grief, or You should get rid of your husband’s clothes. You know, You need to clean out your clothes. You need to move. You need to go do something new.

Charlie LeBlanc:
16:52

You need to, you know, and, know, they don’t know, they don’t know, they’ve not been there. Right. And some of them maybe have been there, but their journey can be different than So, the other you know, this type of speaking too strongly into someone’s journey is very unholy and unhealthy. It’s a different thing when you and I were grieving and we went to someone, well, like I would go to John Donnelly and I’d say, John, give me some help here. I need to make a decision.

Charlie LeBlanc:
17:24

Can you help me? We’re hurting, you know, and he was wise enough to give us healthy counsel. But, you know, for people just coming up to me out of nowhere and say, Hey, you need to, you know, know, Praise the Lord, you’re over it, aren’t you? Know, that kind of mean, no one ever said that, but I’m just saying we got that kind of feeling.

Jill LeBlanc:
17:44

Well, kind of said that.

Charlie LeBlanc:
17:45

Well, doing good kind of thing.

Jill LeBlanc:
17:47

Well, no, but even a few months down the road, maybe six or seven, eight months down the road, someone was praying with us. I mean, six to eight months after our son’s departure, someone was praying with us and afterwards said, I feel like you’re just, you’re about 80% through the grief journey.

Charlie LeBlanc:
18:08

Yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
18:08

And that was just the first year.

Charlie LeBlanc:
18:10

Yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
18:11

In less than a year. And it’s like, Wow, okay, I don’t feel like it, but, you know, you don’t see me every day when I’m, you know, laying in bed at night and I get hit with a flashback and I’m just laying there sobbing as quietly as I can, you know, at that time.

Charlie LeBlanc:
18:29

Yeah, I, in general, the body of Christ needs to have a lot more respect and wisdom when it comes to dealing with friends that are grieving, dealing with friends that are getting through it. And you know, it takes a while, it takes a long time. It does. And it takes longer for some than others. We were just meeting with some of our dear friends in St. Louis last week who had lost their daughter and the dear wife. They’ve had such a hard year, it’s been so tough. Yeah. And, you know, we were just loving on them and doing the best we could to just, you know, help them. We’re sixteen and a half years out from our loss, so we’re in much better place. But they’re just one year out, and I mean, they have been through it. And she asked, she said, Can you just tell me what is it gonna look like next year? What should I expect?

Jill LeBlanc:
19:25

For year two.

Charlie LeBlanc:
19:26

Yeah, for year two.

Jill LeBlanc:
19:28

Yeah, and at the moment I didn’t have an answer, but, you know, it’s just, you just continue carrying on. And, you know, in our second year is when we met a few really beautiful people. We were working at the Bible College, starting the music school and one man, one young man in particular became like a spiritual son

Charlie LeBlanc:
19:59

Yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
20:00

And even to this day, he still holds a very special place in our heart.

Charlie LeBlanc:
20:04

Mhm.

Jill LeBlanc:
20:06

But you know, we just had to continue being patient with ourselves and just take one day at a time, because you just don’t know what that day’s gonna be like.

Charlie LeBlanc:
20:20

Exactly. It was a little bit of a hard question to answer because trying to look back, you know, we were so still raw and broken after a year. Yeah, we went back into leading worship and things into life, and things, we had good days and we had bad days, you know, it got easier slightly, but I think I told her, I said, You’re probably gonna get more of the same, I think is the only thing. Said, you know, don’t think, Okay, well, now it’s gonna be fine. No, the pain of losing a child, especially like that, you continually think about them and you continually, you know, grieve and have sorrow over their loss.

Charlie LeBlanc:
21:09

We were with another young couple who just had a stillborn. I think we’ve mentioned that on our broadcast before, but, oh, it’s just so awful. They were grieving so hard. It had been, what, a couple weeks, I think, or a week and a half?

Jill LeBlanc:
21:25

Yeah, about three weeks maybe.

Charlie LeBlanc:
21:26

And yeah, it was just, all we could do is really weep with them and hold them and relate to it, you know?

Jill LeBlanc:
21:35

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
21:35

And I think that alone helps.

Jill LeBlanc:
21:38

Absolutely. It helps when someone gets in your boat with you.

Charlie LeBlanc:
21:42

Yeah, yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
21:43

I mean, you’re just, you’re tossed by the waves, you know, you’re in this tumultuous situation. And when someone grieves with you, cries with you, just shows so much compassion and tenderness, that is so huge.

Charlie LeBlanc:
22:02

Oh, it’s worth it. In fact, you know, interestingly, we talk about this a lot too, that we feel like sometimes we’re inadequate, we feel like we’re not able to say the right things, and I’m sitting here sometimes ministering to couples like we did on this last trip, and I’m thinking, Charlie, you wrote a book, you do a podcast, you should have a whole lot more to say about this. You should be able to, but again, I walk away thinking, Man, I should have said murder, but they’re like, they tell us we have no idea how much it helped them for us to be with them. And that blows me away, but it shows the power of being present. It shows the power of love.

Charlie LeBlanc:
22:50

You know, like the Lord spoke to us, you do the love and let me do the fixing. And sometimes when you just don’t have the right words, all you need to do is just be there and listen and love. And I know we say that a lot on this podcast, but I don’t think it could be said enough. No. Just love and be there and weep with them and just care enough to spend time with the bereaved.

Charlie LeBlanc:
23:16

It’s so important, you know, it’s like the old gruffy peacher said, Show up and shut up, you know? But I don’t mean to be that strong and that rude, but, you know, because I believe God will give us things to share at times, but at the same time, we have to be really careful. And what was that one, I can’t remember her name, we put it in the book, the quote, but do you remember the quote a little better than I would.

Jill LeBlanc:
23:42

The woman who lost her child. She said something like, just close your mouth and just walk with me.

Charlie LeBlanc:
23:57

Open your heart.

Jill LeBlanc:
23:58

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Close your mouth, open your heart and walk with me until I can see color again.

Charlie LeBlanc:
24:05

Yeah. Yeah. That touches me deeply Yeah. Every time I think about it, you know, because it’s so true. People are just wounded and hurting, and they just need time.

Charlie LeBlanc:
24:17

Just give people time. You know, scripture says in Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for grieving, there’s a time for mourning. You know, Jesus said, I’ve come to heal the brokenhearted, to comfort those who mourn. You know, this is part of this broken world, it’s part of the pain. And you know, and Jesus, interestingly, when He walked up to the tomb of Lazarus, the Scripture says that He saw Mary and Martha and all the Jews weeping and crying.

Charlie LeBlanc:
24:45

And yes, He knew He was going to be resurrecting Lazarus, but you know, Jesus was all God, but He was also all man. He took upon human flesh and human feelings, and He felt what we felt, and there in that scripture, you know, it says He groaned, it said He was angered with the world, and with the tragedy of death, death is the last enemy, and he was upset with death and how it hurts human beings, and then he looked over at him and it says, Jesus wept. And we’ve been talking about weep with those who weep, Jesus did. Yeah. And people say, well, he weeped because they’re unbelief.

Charlie LeBlanc:
25:31

No, he wept, you don’t weep over unbelief, you know, you get angered, but you you weep with those who weep because you care, and because you love them, and because they’re hurting, and Jesus did that as an example for Russ. He wept with Mary and Martha, the ones he loved so much, and he cared enough to just break down, which is that famous scripture.

Jill LeBlanc:
25:59

Mhmm.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:00

You know?

Jill LeBlanc:
26:00

Yeah. A lot of people in the in in some of our camps say that that he cried because he was upset about their unbelief.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:11

Right, I know.

Jill LeBlanc:
26:12

You know? But I Sorry, I was looking up a script.

Jill LeBlanc:
26:18

I believe you nailed it. Yeah, maybe he was not real pleased with their unbelief, but I think he was crying with them because he loved them and he saw their pain.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:31

That’s right. And the scripture right after it says, see how he loved them.

Jill LeBlanc:
26:36

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:36

That’s what it says.

Jill LeBlanc:
26:38

Well, that’s what

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:38

And Jude said, See how He loved them.

Jill LeBlanc:
26:41

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:41

You know, and it’s, again, if you, you know, it’s rare that you get so angry with someone that you weep.

Jill LeBlanc:
26:50

Right, yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:52

You know, I’m so mad at you, oh, no, no.

Charlie LeBlanc:
26:55

Jesus, you know, fair enough, He rebuked His disciples for unbelief, and for them not listening, in fact that scripture after He had died and rose from the dead, Mary Magdalene saw him and she ran to the 11, and it said she came to the 11 who were weeping and mourning. First of all, that’s a good point, that the 11 were weeping and mourning, and some people say, well, you’re not supposed to cry, you’re not supposed to mourn, yeah, That’s not true, it’s just, it’s not right. That’s a normal situation that we run into when we’re hurting, is to weep and mourn, it’s actually a healthy thing to do.

Jill LeBlanc:
27:41

Totally is.

Charlie LeBlanc:
27:42

Yeah, so, but yeah, right after that, know, two others came and said, He’s alive, and they didn’t believe him either. So when Jesus walked into the room, he did rebuke them for not believing that he would rise from the dead, but he didn’t like, he wasn’t mad at them, he just corrected them, and then he says, come on, let’s eat, and he sat with them, and then he said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he just ministered to them. Loves them. Out of love, we correct people sometimes, but that’s Jesus anyway. That’s it.

Charlie LeBlanc:
28:16

Yeah.

Jill LeBlanc:
28:18

And look at this that Paul wrote to the Colossians in Colossians 3:12. And this right here is our assignment as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, his body on the earth. This is our part. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion. It doesn’t say pray that the Lord gives you compassion. Another translation says put on compassion. We are just like we put on our clothes every day ourselves. We are to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Charlie LeBlanc:
29:10

Amen.

Jill LeBlanc:
29:11

And bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Charlie LeBlanc:
29:25

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
29:26

I pulled together what we were saying earlier about bear one another burden, so for the law of Christ, which is love. Yeah. Well, you know what? There’s so much more we can say about this and and we’d like to, but we’re running out of time, and so we just want you to know that we do love you, and we do care, and we pray that this little talk has helped you. And please be praying for family of Charlie.

Charlie LeBlanc:
29:49

Yeah.

Charlie LeBlanc:
29:51

It it it’s so so hard. And we just believe that, you know, God’s gonna bring us through this stronger, and and we’re gonna be bolder in our faith just like they did in the book of Acts after Stephen was martyred. They were bolder, they were stronger, and they just went out and preached the gospel. So God bless you. If you don’t have our book, get our book that’ll help you in your grief journey.

Charlie LeBlanc:
30:15

So we love you, and we will talk to you next time on this podcast. God bless.