Love and Tragedy

Grief is debilitating. We should not try to cut it short through a false sense of spirituality that is only faking it.

Christian word-based spirituality is founded on truth. We do not have to pretend that everything is wonderful when we are reeling from horrible loss. Our loss is an important part of the truth, though it is not the only truth.

The Lord gives us time.

Though we may never understand why we have lost so deeply, our loss somehow fits into the eternal purpose of God in Christ.

One way that we can see some measure of His grace in grief, is to allow God over a number of years to move us toward love in a way that we could not have known without loss.

How does this work?

We experience the truth of loss within the larger tapestry of truth in our lives and especially in God’s Word.

We lay hold of the truth of that Word by faith, particularly as that Word speaks to our loss within the whole system of truth that is the Bible.

We increasingly allow the promises of God to inform our hearts of the certainty of the glorious plan of God which is already ours in Christ. Our hope grows, and even some measure of joy is known by our grieving hearts.

We comfort others with the comfort of Christ, especially as those who know pain more than we did before we lost what we loved. Thus we give ourselves in love to others in a new way, a way that is a help to us, a blessing to those around us, and a credit to the Lord who is sovereign, and who loves us with an everlasting love.

We find that we can eventually love better for having loved and lost, and we are still allowed to grieve as we wait for the glorious hope that is ours in Christ.

This is the way of faith, hope, and love. It does not insist that we be spared tragedy. It insists that tragedy must not ultimately be set apart from the overwhelming fact of the love of God for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So be it.

My prayer:
Come soon, Lord Jesus! Until that great day, make me a vessel of your love. Amen.