Good Grief

I've been thinking about grief lately. Not such a happy topic, I know. It would probably be nicer to think about happy things. I do that more than I think about grief, but grief is so much a part of life here. As we move through the years we experience different kinds of losses and those things become part of us forever. Family members and friends die, we lose a job, we move away from friends and communities we love, we lose a pet, sometimes relationships end painfully. Our lives are impacted and shaped by all of these experiences. Time can take the edges off the pain but if we sit still and think about one of those losses we still feel it. A little sadness, maybe some tears.

We've moved a few times. Along with the excitement of a new adventure, there is grief over what we left behind. We lost Karen's dad very suddenly and unexpectedly some years back. My sister's husband lost his battle with cancer about six years ago. Then a year later we lost Mom, also due to cancer. I lost a job a couple years ago. At that same time we had to have our Sheltie put to sleep. And we lost Dad just a few weeks ago. It doesn't make any sense to deny those things or the pain they brought.

Rather than denying them it seems to make more sense to embrace them. These are the things, along with countless blessings, God has sent my way to shape me and make me the man he wants me to be. He was there in the middle of these painful experiences just as much as he was through all the happy ones.

Thanks, God, for every experience, adventure, loss and blessing you send my way. You are Lord. I will grieve, but not "like the rest of men, who have no hope."