Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4: 8, 9,10

I was in deep thought this morning about loss and how it can dramatically impact lives.  I decided to write about it, because it helps to have perspective around everything.

There is a God that longs to meet you in your grief if only you’d allow Him to. This passage of scripture encourages us to “be afflicted, to mourn and to weep.” There is medicinal purpose in allowing grief to help assist you in the healing process.

I’ve worked as a social worker in a psychiatric setting, and it amazes me to the degree that people suffer from mental and emotional stress from loss.  Sorrow affects you from a very deep place. Some diligently guard over it, as if were some sort of treasure. As if this burden they carry were something they had to guard over with lock and key – and if opened, it would lose a Pandora’s Box full of emotion they are neither ready nor willing to address.  The truth is: unless this Pandora’s Box of grief in your life is opened, you will never experience true freedom in your life.  The cloud of despair it takes in order to cause one to overcome it can be absolutely draining to your soul. In fact, it may take all you have to keep going. Dreams may possibly never be realized, and your grief may sap all of your emotional and spiritual strength. There are some who experience perpetual grief, and others who experience anticipatory grief. Even though you may have lost, you still anticipate more of what you will lose, and it clouds your future, your hopes and dreams. It even numbs you the point you cannot enjoy the present life, and your family and friends.

What are you grieving today that has buried you in an early grave? It’ s likely, if you cannot even remember what joy feels like and your sense of despondency drains your energy from day to day, you may not be fully alive.  Is guilt lingering over that last decision you made? Are you constantly noticing you live in the past and the future is unimaginable, and the present too distant to recall?

Many think of grief as death. Ironically, it is, but not always like you think. It may have to deal with your house, your estranged spouse in your marriage, a lost loved one, a major change or transition, the loss of a friendship – a child who passed, yet even if they have not passed, but are no longer in your presence. Grief comes also in the form of relocation to a new state or major transition with a career, or it may be a divorce, or the death of a pet you once loved.

The pain of grief and the sorrow that accompanies it, can either cloud your future, or transform your life. God desires to Shepherd over our life in such a way that we allow Him as Shepherd, to guard our hearts and minds from such utter despair. It’s hard when you are grieving to see God as a loving God. But what the character of God can reveal to you in your grief experience can provide a radical approach to how you deal with change.

I cannot say that I know the purpose of grief and loss, but I can say that I have experienced it. I will share a story that can help you to see more clearly the purpose it had in my life, and how God meant to provide healing, and not harm.

Read on – to be encouraged in this exhortation: The God Who Watches Over Your Grief.