DAY 16: Good Grief!

Anyone who has ever watched a Peanuts special knows the phrase "Good grief!" It was the phrase that Charlie Brown uttered at every turn in exasperation. Now I may be telling my age at the mere mention of Charlie Brown, but it is not without cause. You see, I was reflecting on the term and wondered if there is ever such a thing as "good" grief. I've been in an emotional space that's a bit out of sorts. Nothing is wrong per se. I'm doing what I love to do. I work for an awesome God. I support some really wonderful people in doing great things for the Lord. I have love surrounding me in the form of friends and family. Truly, life is pretty good...and yet still out of sorts.

So as I have been attempting to unpack this space of dis-ease and I realized that most of it is just simple fatigue. However, there's a part of this space that has nothing to do with where I am and mostly to do with where I'm not. I realized that I was experiencing an undercurrent of grief.

No, no one I know recently died. That would have been a clear indicator of my grief. Instead, the remnants of this grief snuck in when I least expected it through what I call unfulfilled dreams. Most of the time, I don't think about it. However, every now and again the melancholy of life's ups and downs will sneak in. Perhaps for you it's not about things that haven't happened as much as it is about things that have. Maybe you've lost a friendship or you've changed professional direction. Perhaps you were fired from a job or fired from a relationship (i.e. divorce, break up). It could be that for you, it is genuinely the loss of a loved one. No matter what reason grief rears its ugly head, it just tends to show up on our doorsteps (at times unannounced).

As I had this epiphany, it was not without solution. Two things came my way and are ministering to me in this space. The first are two quotes that I stumbled upon that get right to the heart of the matter: "...the only cure for grief is to grieve." (Earl Grollman) and "No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear." (C.S. Lewis). So often, we are looking for a shortcut or a magic pill to get through the hard points in our life. But the truth is that we just have to go through some things. And, in the case of grief, we fear the thing...the person...the possibilities we miss. For those things that we have yet to see come to pass, we fear that they never will. For things that have happened before, we fear that they will never happen again.

But that's where the second thing that I discovered comes into play. It's, in fact, more important of my two discoveries and it is scripture that puts salve on the healing spaces in my heart:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts 

us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to 

comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with 

which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor 1:3-4)

At the end of the day, it's this scripture that fills my soul when I'm at my most fatigued. It's the Word of God that truly comforts my heart when I'm feeling most at a loss and trying not to be weary. It's His Word that reminds me that there is purpose in this time of wondering, hoping, and grieving--helping us...helping me to see that there really is a "good" element to grief. It doesn't make the fatigue or pain disappear, but it does assuage it just enough to make it possible for us to simply grieve and get through it.

Today, I pray that you be encouraged in the spaces of your grief. May the God of all comfort comfort you in all your affliction so that you will be able to comfort others who are afflicted. 

Blessings,
Pastor Andrea