You're at 30,000 feet, a comfortable cruising altitude, when suddenly someone speaks words into your life that send your heart into a tailspin. You lose all control and slam headfirst into the ground. Your life is in flames and the pain is overwhelming. Devastation is everywhere. There is no escape and you know that life will never be the same. You can't breathe and your heart feels as though it has been ripped out, torn to shreds, then thrown in the flames. You feel dead inside and yet you are alive. Maybe you even wish you were dead. Ever felt that way? I have.
Loss is always accompanied by grief whether it is the loss of a job, a friendship, a pet, or a loved one. There is always grief. The degree of grief will be different for each person and for each loss. You will grieve differently over the loss of a parent than the loss of a spouse or child or sibling. Even family members will grieve differently over a shared loss, like a parent.
Grief takes time, lots of time. You cannot put grief on a timetable. It also doesn't go away on its own. You have to work at it. Ignoring it and hoping it will just go away doesn't help. You can't go around it. You must go through it. The work is often painful but healing lies on the other side of the pain. Like a wound that gets dirt in it. If you don't clean it out, it will fester and get infected. Loss is a wound to your heart and working through your grief will help to bring about healing.
Though you may feel alone in your grief, you are not alone. There are others who are walking on the journey of grief. Sharing your grief story with those who will listen with compassion and sensitivity is an important part of healing. Being a part of a support group will also be very helpful. There are many excellent resources online. It is not my intent to replace them here. I will try to share links to some of them here as I find them.
Though I have a degree in counseling, I am not a licensed counselor. This is not therapy online. If you are struggling with grief, I encourage you to seek out a licensed professional in your area. It is my intent that this blog be a place of support and encouragement, a place of hope and healing. I will share what I know and what has helped me. If there are topics you would like me to discuss here, please feel free to contact me and I will prayerfully consider it.
I am still on my grief journey. I do not pretend to have all the answers. I don't. But I know the One who does. The most important part of my healing has come through my faith in Jesus Christ. He is the Great Physician. There is no wound He cannot heal if we let Him. Though family and those I counted as friends deserted me when I needed them most, He has never left me. In His word He promises to never leave us or turn away from us. He knows the deepest hurts of our heart.
I want to leave you with words from His love-letter to us. The following is taken from Isaiah, chapter 61. I'll not write it all here as it would be too lengthy, but I encourage you to read it all for yourself.
"He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted...to comfort all who mourn...to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness...."
♥((HUGZ)),
Dian
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