Sunday, June 15, 2014

Help With Grief About Loved One's Death

Whether you have experienced your first death of a loved one or several, the feeling is similar. Experience with this type of grief does not eliminate pain. I know that you may be feeling that you really will never laugh ever again. Maybe you can't stop bursting into tears, and you feel that you'll never feel joy again. You believe that the excruciating pain from the death of someone about whom you care will never, ever leave. Though you never get used to the person's passing, the day comes when you do laugh again, for the first time since since he/she left.

It's unbelievable and it feels strange. It even sounds foreign to your ears, as though it's not you at all whose laughing in the wake (no pun intended) of such a tragedy. Then after that you continue to put one foot in front of the other and it becomes a little easier to breath and live. Some days are still painful, but you find that you have moved forward in a way in which you thought you never could.


The Word of God, the Bible, gives us many scriptures to encourage us about dealing with the passing away of someone whom we love. Christians believe that they will again be reunited with the departed loved ones who confessed faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. They believe that one day they will be together again because that is what the Bible promises us. The scriptures even tell us that we don't have to continue to grieve with no hope, like people who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior and the way to eternal life. (I Thess. 4:12-13).

It is also very helpful, when we feel overwhelmed with sorrow, to remember that the experience that we are having is very different than what the departed is experiencing. It is true because The Word tells us so. They also would not want grief to overtake and dominate our lives. The poems below also give us much to think about and something by which to be comforted.

Farewell
I could not break the silence
of such a sacred flight
You're going to God our father
Who makes everything all right
I wanted to say "Stay,
Go another day"
Selfish mortal that I be
to want to rob, such joy from thee.
I hide the tears and saddened heart
Lest you choose suffer, and not depart.
I'll join you some day
Be on your way
God must have work for me to do.
Someday, Someday, I'll be with you.

(anonymous)

I Am Free
I am now free.
The restrictions placed upon me
By the confines of my physical limitations
Are no concern.
Flight is swift, but effortless.
The joy cannot compare
to any I've ever known.
I am free.
My soul was entrapped in a body
Aging constantly to the point of rage.
The soul now flies free;
I see the light of the stars.
The rush of the wind tingles
like a cool, morning breeze.
To feel the love of those behind me,
The joy of those who have gone before.
There is peace as I finally see my God.
I will wait, for in time, you too will come.
The Light, The Joy, The Love;
I am now free.

(anonymous)

This post dedicated to my brother, Thomas Pedro Johnson, who introduced me to The Calvary Road, and who was always seeking God.
March 1960 - May 1992

and my brother Toni Leslie Johnson, who believed God and said the sinner's prayer,
directed by Jimmy Swaggart on TV.
June 1961 - December 1999

You can read The Calvary Road  free at Gutenberg.org.

It can be downloaded for free here: Christian Issues.

It is also available for purchase in print form through Amazon: The Calvary Road

Jimmy Swaggart Ministries website can be found here: JSM.org.
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Image Credit: Wikipedia-Kite

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