Life doesn’t always turn out as planned and we must often grieve many reasonable expectations. But our loss and heartaches are not grieved without hope. We trust God still brings new life even after death.
Perhaps we don’t get the job. Or our marriage is faced with challenges that rock us to our core. Or maybe after years of providing for our children and loving them well, they no longer want anything to do with us.
And this is all the more defeating when we’ve worked hard and sacrificed only to still come up short or be denied our desires.
Our best is not always good enough to give us what we want and we must regularly grieve what we don’t have. In fact, life is filled with many such moments of grief.
It’s tempting to try to force life to work on our terms. But this often frustrates everyone and tends only to prolong the inevitable.
As painful as it is, sometimes it’s best to pull the plug and let go of what we’re desperately holding on to.
But this is not a point of despair.
We grieve in hope.
The sun still rises every morning, spring still blooms after winter, and God is still faithful in bringing us life after death.
This does not minimize the pain of our loss. It still matters.
And the path forward is through the grief. Downplaying it only leads to bitterness and resentment.
Underlying anger or a general discontentment with life is often traced back to aspects of our story we’ve not yet fully grieved.
All the same, grief is not the final word in our story.
God still turns our mourning into dancing as we look to and trust in him.
Let your heart fully grieve the many losses of life. And don’t forget the promise of new life God still offers.
Live in hope.
Photo by Luemen Carlson on Unsplash
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