Grief

Grief. The thief of this moment. The robber of the good. The gut-wrenching, all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere emotion that you feel powerless to. Grief comes in waves. You will be trekking along doing just fine on your journey...and then tears burst forth like the Niagara falls.

It may be a smell that conjures up warm memories that quickly turn to sorrow. It may be the sound of a specific song or just a simple melody that takes you back to a moment in time you want to remember...or perhaps don't want to remember. It may be an event that your child can't attend, yet again, due to the beautiful way in which they were made. It may be the ceremonial moment of a high school graduation and dreams of dorm rooms and going away to college that will never be for your sweet one. It may be in a hospital as you walk by the nursery and grieve the what might have been. It may very well be the site of a couple walking and holding hands and you are suddenly sent reeling into deep agony over the loss of your partner. There isn't a loss or an emotion that we could express that Jesus himself didn't experience.

Every one of us has a story. Each unique and riddled with grief. Those moments that just truly shape the person you are today...both good and bad...all have powerful purpose. They teach empathy, compassion and understanding in a far greater method than any words ever could. Sometimes the grief can be so profound that you wonder if you will ever find joy once again. The Bible says in Psalm 30:5, weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning. I can promise that you will continually deal with your moments of grief. It will not end...but those waves seem to crash with less force the more and more that you lean into the Lord. God will turn our winter's night into a summer's day, our sighing into singing, our grief into gladness, our mourning into music, our bitter into sweet, our wilderness into a paradise. Joy will come in the morning, not necessarily tomorrow morning. The dark and the sorrow will have an ending, this He does promise us.

There is a choice that you must make though...it doesn't just come. You must choose to surrender your will, your thoughts, your life to Jesus Christ. Period. You may not feel it. You have to choose it. Choose joy. Don't allow anything or anyone to keep you from choosing a life of His joy and His grace and His glory. Your circumstances will not likely change over night...but your attitude can.

I don't for one second think that I'm not going to shed tears when things get hard in my life. I don't sit here and say that I don't truly recognize the agony in each of our stories. I will even tell you that more and more as life goes along...it will bring with it more agony and more sorrow and more darkness. The key to rising above it...Jesus. Choosing Jesus and trusting that the morning will come.

I am an imperfect person sharing my heart. I don't have it all figured out. I'm just doing my all to trust it all to the King of the World. I long to see that glorious day when every eye shall see Him and bow down before Him...and until that day I want to live in the light of His love and remember that morning is coming!

Tell me how to pray for you. We are in this together. Allow me to love you and listen and pray...