Navigating Grief with God

Our lives are like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Every day, God hands us a piece to the puzzle. These pieces can be very colorful, consisting of joy. But these pieces can also be dark, full of sadness. Grief often arrives at our hearts unexpectedly and enters without even a knock. As we grieve, we feel everything and often all at once. Anger, confusion, depression … grief brings all of it’s luggage into our souls. How does one keep their head high, sight set on God, when the weight of our grief brings us so low?

Understand that faith and sadness can coexist. We live in an unfair world and are saved by a fair God. Because of this, earth has both love and suffering. Where you find love, you will encounter suffering. Where there is suffering, you can absolutely find love. When we are mourning, it is up to us to make the active decision to heal and continue to find love. We could easily sulk in our sadness and let it consume our soul. But no one ever truly wants to suffer forever. Keep chasing Christ and His love so you can find true peace in Him.

Now what happens when you experience the grief of someone who is still on this earth? They didn’t pass, but God closed that door. You may spend weeks, if not even months questioning why God took that person away from you. Why you’re allowing them to continue on with their life without you in it. How could you possibly go on? But believe that the Lord has closed that door so another can open. God has taken away what is withering your soul so that you may flourish. That relative, significant other, friend, or whatever they were to you is no longer for you. The places you are going, the plans you are going to achieve, they cannot go with you because you are at a much higher level. In every situation, trusting Him is essential. He has something great for you. But don’t think you can’t grieve or cry to Him, because He knows. He understands. But don’t let this cloud your judgement.

When all you can muster out is tears, know that God hears you and will restore you. Continue to trust in Him. It can be difficult to actively trust God when he takes something away or calls one of his children back home. It makes us fill with rage and confusion. We wonder why. Why did this happen to me? Why did this have to happen? Why? The truth is we will never understand God’s timing or reasonings. However, when we have faith in Him, we find comfort in knowing this: He will never leave us, instead He will always rightly lead us.