Taking the Journey of Grief - Step 4

At several points in the study you have probably begun to question God, doubt Him, be angry at Him, or wonder if what you think about Him really makes any difference. We’ve brought many painful pieces of grief to mind. When we look at it, we naturally ask, “Where does ‘the buck’ stop?” It stops with God (or whoever, whatever is in control… if anything is). It has been said that animals divide between herbivores (those eating plants) and carnivores (those eating meat), but the humans are verbivores – we live off of words, or, more accurately, off of the meaning we give to life through words. This is why we’ve emphasized the themes of story, journey, and identity so much. They are how we “digest” life. “No one is more influential in your life than you are, because no one talks to you more than you do. You are in an unending conversation with yourself. You are talking all the time, interpreting, organizing, and analyzing what’s going on inside you and around you (p. 56).” Paul Tripp in A Shelter in the Time of Storm . We are now going to explore how we give meaning to all the facts, experiences, influences, and changes we have unpacked in the first three chapters. It is by giving meaning to these things that we will “process” our grief – for better or worse, healthily or unhealthily. Trying to make meaning of death requires that we wrestle with things beyond this life. Just as making sense of a tadpole becoming a frog requires considering things outside the pond. “The life of the most insignificant man is a battlefield on which the mightiest forces of the universe converge in warfare—this elevates the status of the lowliest and least person on earth (p. 108)!... Suffering has no meaning in itself. Left to its own, it is a frustrating and bewildering burden. But given the context of relationship, suffering suddenly has meaning (p. 127).” Joni Eareckson Tada & Steven Estes in When God Weeps . But we must not think that this requires us to think only “nice,” theologically precise thoughts about life, death, and God. We do not approach this search for meaning as an academic exercise – like a scientist looking for the cure for cancer – but in an intensely personal way – like a cancer patient asking, “Isn’t there anything that can be done?” In order for the meaning to be satisfying or healthy it must emerge from asking the question as we are living the question – raw. With this in mind, this chapter will ask dark questions; questions for which there are no “good” answers, only honest answers. Recognize that it is not irreverent to ask God painful questions full of honest emotion when a storm of suffering engulfs us. The fact that we bring God our questions honors Him. God knows the limitation of our mind, heart, and body. God hears them like a parent whose child is screaming because of a doctor’s shot – while the scream may sound and be meant as defiance and doubt it is an expression of faith in the parent’s love and the parent’s willingness to help if something could be done. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Taking the Journey of Grief - Step 4 is an episode from G4 Emotions by Brad Hambrick.

This episode is 18:00 long.

This episode was published on Aug 1, 2017.

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