Have you experienced grief lately?
What does healthy grieving look like? How should grieving look different for a Believer?
The idea of grieving has been on my heart a lot lately. Not to dampen the mood, but there have been many deaths in my church and among people close to me; there have also been plenty of situations in this world or around me that have grieved my heart.
Grief seems like a huge burden to bare sometimes. To move on we often put it on the back burner, especially when there is more than one situation. It seems too much to understand or process.
So, what do we do with grief? What should it look like?
The story that naturally come to mind is Jesus’s grief for Lazarus
John 11:32-37
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Natural questions to ask in these seasons of life are, “why? Why did you do nothing? If you are all-powerful, why did you let them die? Why do you let war or natural disasters tear families apart? Why do you let crazy people kill the sweetest person? Why did you not stop my friend or family member from making that bad choice? Why do you let people live in misery? Why are they sick or where is my health? Why did you let those people I care so much about ruin the relationship? Why did they move away? Why do I have to wait to do the things I know you are calling me to, and make me do this job I don’t like? Why am I alone? Why have your grand plans crumbled into pieces when I thought I was on the right path?”
WHY DOES GOD LET THESE THING HAPPEN? WHERE IS HE?
As much as it seems unfair that God is not fixing the problem like you think He should, He is there and is grieving with you. He understands your pain and it grieves His heart too. He is a good God. He knows how much we can handle but He wants us to trust Him even when it feels too heavy; we are never supposed to carry anything alone.
Maybe it is true that He did not prevent the struggle from happening, but He wants to walk you through it. He can’t do that if you run away from Him instead of going to Him with your grief. There is a journey of healing and lessons He wants to teach you as He draws you closer to Himself. He wants you to learn to trust and depend on Him.
How are you doing with that? I personally am learning to process all my emotions and circumstances through the Lord. It is not easy at first because you like to hold on to the flesh sometimes and act in anger or jealousy, or just let the grief drain the life from you.
God promised life would be hard; it is the nature of living in a fallen world. However, God also promises that we will have abundant life.
John 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
As we walk through these things with God and let Him comfort us, these situations will not overcome us. God will teach and give us joy amidst the pain; He will heal the wound that was left behind.
Do you trust God in the grief? How have you coped with the pain? My challenge for you this week is try God. Go to Him with all of it. If you have a testimony of how God already has walked you through grief, please share it with us in the comments.
Another good blog to read on grief is Paul Granger’s “The Unsupportive Friends” about the life of Job. You should check it out.
