Loss and Grief

Walking forward when walking forward means walking with loss is not easy walking.  Yet, as much as we would choose to avoid any kind of loss in our life, it is inevitable.  When we think about loss, the first thing we think about is the loss experienced through the death of someone we love.  This is truly a hard loss which is often compounded when it comes unexpectedly, or in a way which seems to go against the grain of what seems to be normal in the fabric of life.

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Of course, life shaking loss comes disguised in what might appear as some benign circumstance.  But, benign hardly describes the kind of loss experienced when  marriage partners end a life of being together.  And sometimes loss in families comes not through divorce, but through the wayward rebellion of a child.  As one who spent a lifetime of moving from one place to another, it has become obvious that loss and grief can even  accompany geographic changes.  No one is really immune to loss.  Some may not count it as such and not really deal with it as a grief making event in life.  Not paying attention to the loss does not take away its impact on our lives.  Somewhere along the way the grief of losing what is regarded as a person or thing of value will surface.

 

Those who expect life to be easy should seek residency on another planet.  The Word of God which points us to many realities of life does not offer easy.  What it does point us toward is a faithful God whose heart was surely broken by the loss of life seen on Calvary.  What it does point us toward is the reality that the world, as broken as it may seem, is still under the control of the Almighty One who first spun it on its axis.  In the midst of loss, it often seems this God whose essence is love has left us, but there is always a resounding "No!" throughout Scripture.  Whatever life brings, God is with us.