Often people ask why my husband Jim and I work with those who grieve. “Isn’t it hard to be around sad people?”

We do it because someone did it for us. Someone was there to embrace me with understanding. It wasn’t so much what they said, but that they were there.

During the thirteen weeks we meet, we see a change in the griever’s countenance.  There is hope on their faces when at first, there was deep sadness and pain. Grief isn’t over after thirteen weeks, but it has lessened and I believe it’s because of the hope that Christ gives.

Why would anyone say “Blessed are they that mourn”? Because in grief, we are at the lowest of ourselves and God is there, closer than ever before. In our GriefShare classes, we point those who grieve, to the God of hope, for there’s no other place to go.

It is our hope that as the person who is grieving, opens themself to the word of God which we both believe is the only source of hope.

Can we grieve on our own, without the word of God? I guess you can, but why would you?

On our last meeting of our grief classes, we have a little ceremony where we release a balloon up to the skies. On the balloon, we ask each person to write a message to their loved one. Obviously, the one who has died doesn’t see the message, but it is a kind of release to the one who grieves.

My experience with grief has taught me that walking through that shadow is hard, but during the walk through the shadow, as the psalmist wrote: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me,” Psalm 23: 4. We are promised his presence. 

What grief are you walking through today? Is it the loss of a loved one in death? Is it the loss of a relationship where you love that person so much, yet they resist your overtures of love? Perhaps it’s a loss of body function–you can’t walk or run as you did earlier in your life and you feel restricted and lost without that ability. Are you without a job and you can’t find one? Is a loved one hopelessly entrenched in an addiction and you feel helpless? All are grief. And God is there, waiting for you to call on him. He is near.

God promises to be with us in that grief. I close with a reminder that was so helpful to me:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13 NIV).

Get these Blog posts emailed directly to you.

Enjoy the waning days of summer. Here, the forecast is to be hot–93–but we know the season is changing. Soon we’ll enter my favorite season, colorful fall.