{"id":20350,"date":"2021-08-02T09:40:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T13:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20350"},"modified":"2021-08-02T09:48:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T13:48:34","slug":"the-devastation-of-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20350","title":{"rendered":"The Devastation of Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qiD-UzbH5VA\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>In the Hebrew Scriptures, we find Job moving\nthrough Elisabeth K\u00fcbler-Ross\u2019s well-known stages of grief and dying: denial,\nanger, bargaining, resignation, and acceptance. The first seven days of Job\u2019s\ntime on the \u201cdung heap\u201d of pain are spent in silence, the immediate response\nmatching the first stage\u2014denial. Then he reaches the anger stage, verses in the\nBible in which Job shouts and curses at God. He says, in effect, \u201cThis\nso-called life I have is not really life, God, it\u2019s death. So why should I be\nhappy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps some of us have been there\u2014so hurt and\nbetrayed, so devastated by our losses that we echo Job\u2019s cry about the day he\nwas born, \u201cMay that day be darkness. May God on high have no thought for it,\nmay no light shine on it. May murk and deep shadow claim it for their own\u201d (Job\n3:4\u20135). It\u2019s beautiful, poetic imagery. He\u2019s saying: \u201cUncreate the day. Make it\nnot a day of light, but darkness. Let clouds hang over it, eclipse swoop down\non it.\u201d Where God in Genesis speaks \u201cLet there be light,\u201d Job insists \u201cLet\nthere be darkness.\u201d The day of uncreation, of anti-creation. We probably have\nto have experienced true depression or betrayal to understand such a feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>W. H. Auden expressed his grief in much the\nsame way in his poem \u201cFuneral Blues,\u201d which ends with these lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The stars are\nnot wanted now: put out every one,<br>\nPack up the moon and dismantle the sun,<br>\nPour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;<br>\nFor nothing now can ever come to any good. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a part of each of us that feels and\nspeaks that sadness. Not every day, thank goodness. But if we\u2019re willing to\nfeel and participate in the pain of the world, part of us will suffer that kind\nof despair. If we want to walk with Job, with Jesus, and in solidarity with\nmuch of the world, we must allow grace to lead us there as the events of life\nshow themselves. I believe this is exactly what we mean by conformity to\nChrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must go through the stages of feeling, not\nonly the last death but all the earlier little (and not-so-little) deaths. If\nwe bypass these emotional stages by easy answers, all they do is take a deeper\nform of disguise and come out in another way. Many people learn the hard way\u2014by\ngetting ulcers, by all kinds of internal diseases, depression, addictions,\nirritability, and misdirected anger\u2014because they refuse to let their emotions\nrun their course or to find some appropriate place to share them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am convinced\nthat people who do not feel deeply finally do not <em>know<\/em>&nbsp;deeply\neither. It is only because Job is willing to feel his emotions that he is able\nto come to grips with the mystery in his head and heart and gut. He understands\nholistically and therefore his experience of grief becomes both whole and holy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Vulnerability: A Divine Condition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We live in a finite world where everything is\ndying, shedding its strength. This is hard to accept, and all our lives we look\nfor exceptions to it. We look for something certain, strong, undying, and\ninfinite. Religion tells us that the \u201csomething\u201d for which we search is God.\nBut many of us envisioned God as strong, complete, and all-powerful\u2014a God\nremoved from suffering. In Jesus, God comes along to show us: \u201cEven I suffer.\nEven I participate in the finiteness of this world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After two thousand years, Jesus is still a\nrevolutionary symbol, revelation, and reality. He turned theology upside down\nand taught, in effect: <em>God is\nnot who you think God is. <\/em>The enfleshment and suffering of Jesus\nreveals that God is not apart from the trials of humanity. God is not aloof.\nGod is not a spectator. God is not merely tolerating human suffering or\ninstantly just healing it. <em>God\nis participating with us in it<\/em>. Living it alongside us and with us.\nThat is what gives us eternal purpose and hope. Like Job, we sometimes feel as\nif our flesh is being torn off and yet we do not die (Job 19:26). Through\nencountering the Living God in our pain, we can experience another kind of\nlife, another kind of freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pain and beauty constitute the two faces of\nGod. On the one hand we are attracted to the unbelievable beauty of the divine\nreflected in the beauty of human beings and the natural world. On the other\nhand, brokenness and weakness also mysteriously pull us out of ourselves. We\nfeel them both together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only vulnerability forces us beyond ourselves.\nWhenever we see true pain, most of us are drawn out of our own preoccupations\nand want to take away the pain. For example, when we rush toward a hurting\nchild, we also rush toward the suffering God. We want to take the suffering in\nour arms. That\u2019s why so many saints wanted to get near suffering\u2014because as\nthey said again and again, they meet Christ there. It \u201csaved\u201d them from their\nsmaller untrue self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My friend the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis preaches\nabout the gift of this two-fold path:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think grief puts us in touch with our vulnerabilities. I think the feeling of grief lets us know the power of wounds to shape our stories. I think it lets us know how capable we are of having our hearts broken and our feelings hurt. I think it lets us know the link that we each have because we\u2019re human. Because we\u2019re human, we hurt. Because we\u2019re human, we have tears to cry. Because we\u2019re human, our hearts are broken. Because we\u2019re human, we understand that loss is a universal language. Everybody grieves. All of humanity grieves. All of us have setbacks, broken dreams. All of us have broken relationships or unrealized possibilities. All of us have bodies that just don\u2019t do what they used to do. Though grief is personal, every person grieves. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad&nbsp;Sarah Young\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BRING ME THE SACRIFICE OF YOUR TIME: a most precious\ncommodity. In this action-addicted world, few of My children take time to sit\nquietly in My Presence. But for those who do, blessings flow like streams of\nliving water. I, the One from whom all blessings flow, am also blessed by our\ntime together. This is a deep mystery; do not try to fathom it. Instead,\nglorify Me by delighting in Me. Enjoy Me now and forever! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSALM 21:6; For You grant him blessings forever; You\ncheer him with joy in Your presence. Surely you have granted him unending\nblessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence. You have endowed him\nwith eternal blessings and given him the joy of your presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JOHN 7:37\u201338; And let anyone drink 38 who believes in\nme.\u201d As Scripture has said, \u201cOut of him (or them) will flow rivers of living\nwater.\u201d New International Version (NIV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSALM 103:11; For as the heaven is high above the &#8211;\nBible Gateway For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy\ntoward them that fear him. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great\nis his mercy toward them that fear him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSALM 34:3; O magnify the Lord with me The psalmist\ninvites the humble ones, who he knew would rejoice at the goodness of God to\nhim, to join with him in ascribing greatness to the Lord, which is meant by\nmagnifying him; for he cannot be made great by men, only declared how great he\nis, and that can only be done in an imperfect manner;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and Evening\nDevotional (Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 444). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Hebrew Scriptures, we find Job moving through Elisabeth K\u00fcbler-Ross\u2019s well-known stages of grief and dying: denial, anger, bargaining, resignation, and acceptance. The first seven days of Job\u2019s time on the \u201cdung heap\u201d of pain are spent in silence, the immediate response matching the first stage\u2014denial. Then he reaches the anger stage, verses in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20352,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20350\/revisions\/20352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}