Hoping Through Hurt: 5 Days of Biblical Counsel for the HolidaysSampel

Grief: Finding Hope Again

God’s great story of redemption has much to say about your story of grief and how it fits in the larger story of God’s plan. Your loss is precious and unique, utterly unlike anyone else’s. The goal of this article is not to squeeze you into a “one size fits all” mold. Rather, it is to help you see how the great themes of God’s story speak with power to what you face in the death of a loved one.

You Cannot Prepare for Death

Whether death results from a sudden accident or a long illness, it catches us unprepared. Death is so deeply emotional and stunningly final that there is nothing you can do ahead of time to sail through your moment of loss.

No matter how unexpected or how predictable, death shakes us to the core. The pain is inescapable. You will hurt. You will grieve. Don’t feel guilty or embarrassed if you feel unprepared to face it. There is no way to prepare for what you are going through. But just knowing that may help you.

You Are Never Alone

The experience of loss is powerful. It is normal to feel as if no one has been through what you now experience. People surround you, yet you feel like you are all by yourself. Psalm 88 says, “You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me; darkness is my only friend” (v. 18). The psalm begins and ends in darkness and isolation. Where is hope in the hopeless cry of this psalm? Psalm 88 gives us hope in our grief precisely because it has no hope in it! It means God understands the darkness we face. He is there with us. The Lord of light is your friend in darkness. The Lord of hope is your companion in your despair. The God of all comfort waits faithfully near you.

Grieve in a Different Way

God doesn’t call you to stifle your grief or put on a happy face when you are crushed. He doesn’t expect you to hide behind religious clichés and theological platitudes. But he welcomes you to look at death through the eyes of Christ. The comfort and hope he provides does not remove your grief but allows you to grieve in a new way. And he promises one day to take you to a place where you will never cry again.