Redefining Loss

Opening Our Hands

To truly understand loss, we must first understand goodness. In the words of Sir Richard Baker: “The good things of God are chiefly peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, in this life; fruition of God’s presence, and vision of his blessed face, in the next.” Loss can allow God to perform a Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-style switcharoo in which He replaces our illusion of goodness with His true goodness. To make room for his peace, joy, and presence, we may have to loosen our grip on autonomy, security, or comfort. But we are guaranteed immeasurably MORE in return. The ending of our stories can allow our plot lines to be woven into God’s good, big, new story.

We’ve lived through what should have been an unsurvivable loss. You may have lived through the same, or worse. What we find on this side of the journey is that loss, in its purest form, is a fear of death. We were not designed to die and the aversion to death is built into our bodily and spiritual DNA. The good news is that when we are connected to Jesus—resurrection personified—we need not die at all. Christ in us vanquishes the fear of death and loss. Jesus gives us permission to live with open hands and whole hearts, laughing without fear of the future because, in the end, our future is with Him.