Death's Sting: Grief & Mourning

Grief and mourning bring a fresh look at the gospel for us. Walking the line of despair is a journey to know God in a newer, greater way. Instead of being detached from our grief, God has entered into the world to experience for himself the sting of death and to give us hope for the future relief from it. He is closely acquainted with his own loss, and he welcomes us to draw near in ours.

1. We need to engage in a “lifestyle of grieving,” to deal with the small experiences of loss that we do feel on a day-to-day basis. We need to become comfortable with the scars of our children, the loss of a sum of money, the separation from old friends—these are normative experiences for us. When we do grieve, we need to invite community in to help us and grieve with us.
2. Grieving takes time and energy. We are not going to “get over it” quickly, and we are not meant to.
3. When a person dies, we cannot know the state of their soul for sure. As much as we would like to assume that a person was a believer or as much as we fear that a person was not, it is the Lord alone who knows and works in a person’s soul to save.
4. We need to actively engage others who are grieving. Most people in grief feel that the people around them avoid them out of fear. It is not our job to fix grief, but rather to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).