Grief and Loss

This was yet again a very intense topic and honestly it's one that most people don't want to talk about because its not fun. Grief and Loss are something that we all have faced and will all continue to face. This session really hit a lot deeper than I thought that it would, part of that is how have handle or more appropriately didn't handle grief and loss in my past and this coupled with the fact that reality set in that I am leaving and as a result of that I am experiencing a lot of grief and loss and others will also be feeling this because I am leaving.

How we deal with grief and loss is not just about the here and now but also how we have dealt or in my case didn't deal with grief and loss. There isn't some sure fire way that we can just deal with the grief that comes with losses as a quote in our notebook said "Grief is not itself something we recover from. It is, rather, a process that helps us to recover from the many losses we experience" I think that many times we want that sure fire way and those quick steps to just get it done and over with but the reality of it all is that grief is both hard and complicated process. However, it is this process that helps heal and grow because too many times (like almost all the time when I was growing up) I would just postpone the grief, I would use those one liners like "Look on the brightside" or "Just keep smiling" but in my attempts to avoid grief it hasn't lead to anything other than more pain and no growth.

After talking about how we deal with grief we drove into the Word of God and sought out verses that talked about grief. Through out history the Israelites were very open in their mourning of grief and loss and shared each others burdens. They didn't sit next to someone who was mourning and say "suck it up" they sat there and would weep with the person.

The next thing Robin had us do is to think of scripture that has brought us comfort in our times or grief and loss and then ask the class to share verses/passages. This was such an amazing time of worship. To just hear God's truth filling the room was a true blessing. We then ended the time by writing our prayers and laments on large pieces of paper and as we all sat in a circle, Robin invited those who wanted to share to cry out to God with their prayer. Personally, this is were I guess reality set in for me and I kind of loss it emotionally ( and those of you who know me know that I rarely ever cry) I guess I had never truly realized how much grief and loss I have experienced and so as I wrote my prayers to God, for the first time in what seems like the one of the first times in my life, I allowed myself to feel grief and mourn some of those losses I have occurred in my life. I couldn't bring myself to share with the group so I silently prayed but to be will all of my SPLICE family and being able to hear their prayers and being able to just be with them as we grieved together was such a complete blessing.

I know that I have a long way to go in this process of dealing with grief and loss but I am praying that God continues to work in my heart in this area of my life. I pray that I will continue being open to this grieving and actually continue to allow myself to grieve and be able to sit with others as they grieve. Grief and loss is hard but I always take comfort in the fact that one day He will wipe away all our tears!