“The Lord is close to the
brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
Losing someone you love can cut into your
heart so viciously it forever redefines who you are and how you think. It’s
what I call deep grief.
It
strains against everything you’ve ever believed. So much so, you wonder how the
promises that seemed so real on those thin Bible pages yesterday could possibly
stand up under the weight of this enormous sadness today.
I
once stood at the side of a casket too small to accept. Pink roses draped
everywhere. And I watched my mom as she lay across the casket refusing to let
go. How could she let go? Part of her heart lay within, so quiet and so still.
I
stood paralyzed and stunned. Just days ago we were laughing and doing everyday
things and assuming that all of our lives stretched before us in spans of many,
many years. And then suddenly—it all stopped.
In
the flurry of funeral plans and memorial services we all operated on automatic.
People were everywhere. Soft chatter filled in the gaps that our stunned
silence could not. And people brought in enough food to feed the whole
neighborhood.
But
eventually people went back to their own lives. The soft chatter dissipated.
The food stopped coming, And we were forced to carry on. Only we had deep grief
wrapped about us that made our throats feel strangled and our feet stuck in
mud.
I
remember around that time when I tried to go to a drive-thru to order some
food. But I couldn’t. I sat there with the speaker spouting words at me I couldn’t
process. The cashier kept asking if she could take my order.
Yeah,
I had an order. Take away my bloodshot eyes. Take away my desire to hurt the
doctors that couldn’t save my little sister. Take away my anger toward God. And
then take away my guilt for being the one who lived. “I'll take all that with no
onions and extra ketchup, please.”
I drove away sobbing. How dare they offer
happy meals! No one should be happy today. Or tomorrow. Or next year.
This is the reality of deep grief. Even
when you love God and believe in His promises. Even when you know without a
doubt that some day you will see your loved one again. Even when you know hope
is still there. Even when you know He is near.
It takes time.
It takes wading through an ocean of tears.
It takes finding a possession of your loved
one you thought was lost and realizing God did that just to comfort you. It
takes discovering one day that the sun still shines. It takes being caught off
guard when you catch yourself smiling, only to realize it’s okay.
It takes prayer. It takes making the
decision to stop asking for answers and start asking for perspective. It takes
telling people to please not avoid saying her name—you want to hear it, over
and over and over again.
Then one day you take off the blanket of
deep grief. You fold it neatly and tuck it away. You no longer hate it or
resist it. For underneath it, wondrous things have happened over time. Things
that could only have come about when Divine Hope intersects with a broken
world.
And finally you can see years stretching
before you once again. You look up, blow a kiss, wipe a tear and find it’s
still possible to dance.
Dear
Lord, thank You for assuring me that Your promises hold true even when life
seems to betray me. You are my strength and my hope. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Psalm
30:11-12a, “You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken
away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises
to you and not be silent.” (NLT)
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