Handling GriefSample

Two Examples Of Grief

David and his wife Svea Flood, a young couple with a 2-year-old son went as missionaries to the Congo in 1921.

In a very short while his wife Svea contracted malaria. In the midst of this, she found herself pregnant and for several months endured a raging fever.

Eventually, Svea’s malaria got so bad she became bedridden and within a week after delivering a healthy baby girl she died.

David Flood was badly shaken by his wife’s death. As he stood beside her grave, with his young son beside him, he heard his baby daughter’s cries from the mud hut. And suddenly, bitterness filled his heart. An anger rose up in him – and he couldn’t control it. He flew into a rage, crying, “Why did you allow this, God? We came here to give our lives! My wife was so beautiful, so talented. And here she lies, dead at twenty-seven.”

“Now I have a two-year-old son I can hardly care for, let alone a baby girl. You’ve failed me, God. What a waste of life!”

He gave his newborn daughter to another missionary to take care of and snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.

It was many, many years later that his daughter found him in a rundown building with liquor bottles lying around him. He was now seventy-three years old and suffering from diabetes. He’d also had a stroke, and cataracts covered both of his eyes.

Praise God that this meeting with his daughter brought him to repentance and he turned back to the Lord before he died. But his whole life was wasted.

Lettie Cowman and her husband Charles went to Japan as missionaries in the 1900s.

After sixteen years of daily meetings, overseeing a Bible institute, and an organization and preaching tours in Korea and China, Charles’ health failed. So Charles and Lettie returned to the United States.

In California, Charles had a heart attack, then his condition worsened further. Lettie nursed her beloved Charles for the next six years. But after a long battle Charles succumbed in September of 1924. 

Charles’ death was devastating for Lettie. Since they were childless, Charles meant everything to her. They had had a “marriage made in heaven” and were completely devoted to each other. She wrote in her diary, “This is a living hell on earth!” Lettie had prayed that God would heal Charles. Why didn’t He? Had not hundreds of people lifted up Charles to God for healing? Where was He?”

Lettie turned to God’s Word for her help. God seemed to be asking her if she wanted her husband to be healed more than she wanted His will for her. Lettie spent hours reading the Bible and books on suffering and encouragement. She copied out many truths from these books. Little did she know that she was doing this work for others and not just for herself, because out of Mrs. Cowman's experiences and heartbreak and from the hundreds of words of wisdom that she gleaned from the books she read, Streams in the Desert was born. And for over 90 years now Streams in the Desert has never been out of print and has sold over six million copies in multiple languages.

You can allow God to use your grief to touch lives or you can waste your life. The choice is yours 

Quote: ”Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for God. Don’t waste it.”- John Piper

Prayer: Lord, help me never to give up on You or on life because of the loss of a loved one. Help me not to waste my life but allow You to allow my grief for Your glory. Amen