surviving the grief...
In response to hearing of several people coping with grief at the present time,
I would like to reprint a very short article from the
Sound Bites Ministry :
TRUE WORSHIP
True worship does not come by denying our pain and asserting that God is worthy of worship. True worship comes only as we are real and authentic with God about our struggles, doubts, and pain and then make a choice to worship. We can enter into real worship when we acknowledge life is what it is and in spite of that reality we choose to glorify God.
-- Janelle Shantz Hertzler in an article titled “God and Grief Meet in True Worship,” www.JOURNEYTHROUGHGRIEF.com
This post is written for Marilyn, Kate and Irene, all suffering loss this season.
I will be reprinting another article from Sound Bites ministry tomorrow.
Comments
So glad you might be able to find these resources useful.
Sometimes it helps to read about others experiences, doesn't it? Sometimes it helps when others want to talk about it with us, but other times it doesn't.
I remember going to a service , was it Mum's funeral, or a year later at the hospital as a memorial, and the minister said that Grief was like the ocean...one minute the sea can be relatively calm around us, and we can be fine, and another minute there can be a large wave that threatens to knocks us over. Certainly I have found grief to be so. If only we could remember that eventually things gradually become more stable as time goes by! The first few months to a year are always the hardest, remembering little things, anniversaries etc that can sometimes make us sad.
I also remember being perfectly fine looking after my grandchildren, out enjoying an outing with them, when a lady rang from the hospital, checking to see how I was going. And I ended up bursting into tears! Just thankful that someone cared enough to think of me and to ask the question!
But I have often discovered also, that it is times when we are most tired, that we are vulnerable I think! Knowing these things sometimes helps, I think!
I was worried that my crying would upset my kids , but the doctor said, when I consulted him, that I was just showing them what normal grief was like...it is a part of life as anything else, and I wouldn't be normal if I wasn't sad!! He was very helpful!
C.S Lewis had a great little book on grief, I can't remember what the name was. You should be able to google it. Certainly I read a lot about grief, and it helped.
Thinking of you, Annie