Category: grief

There’s No Earthly Period on Grief

A bereaved mama recently shared that while watching a video lesson from a prominent, popular and prolific evangelical Bible teacher and pastor she was horrified to hear him say, “You need to put a period on your grief”.

Her husband walked out of the class.

I think I would have too.

Part of me wants to give grace to this Bible teacher and say that if he hasn’t lost a child (which, to my knowledge, he hasn’t) then he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

But the shepherd part of me wants to shake my finger in his face and say, “Shame on you! Shame on you for using your platform to shame others who are suffering from a loss you don’t understand!”.

He is entitled to his opinion but that does not reflect the totality of Scripture and certainly NOT the heart of God and Jesus.

Grief is a testimony to love.

It was God’s deep grief over sin and His unwillingness to allow eternal separation of His beloved creation from Himself that motivated and necessitated Christ’s sacrifice.

Aside from all the individual examples in the Bible (including Jesus Himself), this is the overarching theme of every book.

God pleads with HIs people to turn and return to Him.

The faithful father of the story of the prodigal son was always, always yearning and watching. He longed to have him back. Israel (Jacob) wouldn’t let the older brothers take Benjamin to Egypt because he was still tender from losing (from his perspective) Joseph ALL those years ago.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He longed to gather her in His arms.

No. Grief is as powerful as love.

There is no earthly period on grief.

The beauty of the Gospel is that in the end, all grief is washed away in the perfect Presence of God the Father and Jesus.

When we grieve, we are proving the power of love.

What If I Don’t Feel a Thing? Sometimes Grief = Numb.

I’ve thought long and hard about that season of “un-feeling”.

Why did my heart shut down? Why the long silence when no emotion pierced my soul?

I think it was necessary.

I think a body and mind and heart can’t operate for too long at warp speed. I think that just like fainting is a response to the brain needing oxygen, numbness is a response to the soul’s need for respite and time to heal.

So if you are in the season of numb, you’re neither crazy nor alone.

Read the rest here: Why Don’t I Feel A Thing? Sometimes Grief = Numb.

Shattered

Years ago I heard  a young woman describe a Chinese grieving ritual on an NPR broadcast:

At her grandfather’s funeral, his oldest son was tasked with demonstrating the depth of grief and pain the father’s passing left behind. He stood before the casket, raised a clay bowl above his head and smashed it to the ground while loudly wailing.

The bowl was shattered into fragments too small and too fragile to be put back together in any semblance of what they once represented.

Read the rest here:  Fragments

What Do I Do? My Family Won’t Talk About My Missing Child.

At first everyone talked about him.

It’s what people do just after a person leaves this world and leaves behind only memories.

It comes natural before the unnatural fact of child loss settles in and begins to make everyone uncomfortable.

But at some point after the funeral and way before the tears dried up, people stopped feeling easy mentioning his name.

Read the rest here: Help! My Family Won’t Talk About My Missing Child.

Won’t Pretend: Ain’t Nothing Easy About Death

I wrote this post four years ago after my mother joined Dominic in Heaven. Her passing reminded me once again (as if my heart needed reminding!) that there ain’t nothing easy about death.

Four years later and I’m no more willing to pretend it’s anything but awful even as I’m resigned to admit there’s nothing I can do about it.

I miss you both so very much.

❤

I remember the moment I realized I was going to have to summarize my son’s life into a few, relatively short paragraphs to be read by friends, family and strangers.

It seemed impossible.

But as the designated author of our family I had to do it so I did.

Today I wrote my mama’s obituary and though her death was not as surprising as Dominic’s it was just as hard to swallow.

Read the rest here: Ain’t Nothing Easy About Death

Some Things Are Worth Fighting For: I Will Not Be Moved

I’m not brave by nature.

If I have a choice, I will run every time.  But there are just some things worth fighting for.

My family is one of them.

I will not let the enemy have them.

I will not allow despair to overtake us, fear to bind us, hopelessness to sap our strength.

I will not let death win.

Read the rest here: I Will Not Be Moved

Telling All One’s Heart is Courageous

It is scary to speak aloud what you hope will never happen to you.  It’s unbelievably frightening to admit that we really have no control over whether, or when, we or the ones we love might leave this world.

But I am not going to keep silent.

Not because I want pity or special treatment, but because I want that parent who just buried his or her child to know that you. are. not. alone.

Read the rest here: Courage is a Heart Word

Scoot Over, Make Room For the Broken

One of the things I learned quickly after Dominic ran ahead to Heaven was that other people were very uncomfortable around my brokenness.

For some, it was because they didn’t know what to say or do when tears leaked from my eyes.

Others found the presence of a bereaved mother simply too hard to take-if it happened to ME, it could happen to THEM.

A few were just too self-focused to allow anyone else’s pain to rain on their “perfect” parade.

But if I’ve learned anything from this life it is this: Christ loves the broken. It’s the broken and breathless who realize they need a Savior.

And when I make room for the brokenness of others in my life, I’m inviting His Holy Presence to dwell in our midst.

❤ Melanie

I used to position myself at the end of the pew, just in case someone I’m not too comfortable with might come along and try to sit down.

It saved us both that awkward conversation where they ask if they can join me and I say “yes” with my mouth but “no” with my body language.

Read the rest here:  Move Over, Make Room for the Broken

Reminders That Life is Fleeting

When children are young and growing every birthday is a celebration. And it absolutely should be!

But when you’ve walked a few (0r more than a few!) years on this old world, birthdays begin to morph into something else.

They remind a heart that life is short, that not all of the people we love will enjoy fullness of years and even those that do seem to leave us way too soon.

Birthdays-after precious people have run ahead to Heaven-mark one more year without them.

Instead of cake and balloons, flowers and presents, we sit with silence and absence, memories and wishes for more time…❤

Today my heart hurts more than usual.

It’s my mama’s birthday-the fourth one we will celebrate without her here to blow out the candles.

It’s also the fourth anniversary (do you call it that?) of the day Papa had to call an ambulance to rush her to the hospital.

She never came home.

Read the rest here: Birthdays and Wakeful Nights

Healing Is NOT Linear

I remember thinking in the early days, weeks and months of this journey that healing was impossible.

The wound was too great, too deep and too devastating to allow for that.

No amount of work or help or wishful thinking could undo the damage.

But I was wrong.

Read the rest here: Healing Is Not Linear