GRIEF HURTS
Grief Hurts
I
would like to do something different in the article you are about to read, and it is something that doesn’t happen too often when an author writes commentary. What I’d like to do for you today, is instead of leading you on the “chase” and bringing you to the “catch”, I’d like to save you the “chase” this once, hand you the “catch”, and just simply talk shop... All of this is just a long way of saying, I’d like to give you the punchline first, and this is – GRIEF HURTS! Have you been there before? Have you lost a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, a brother or sister, or maybe even one of your children? Have you lost a dear friend, a fellow church member, a colleague or a peer? I would say for most of us at some point in our life the answer is yes, and it is quite possible more than one person came to mind as you read the last few sentences. I think we would all agree, the closer the person is to us, the heavier the loss and the more painful the grief really is. The bottom line is – IT HURTS! In some cases, the death of a loved one or friend can come suddenly and without warning, and at other times, it can be a planned event as well, something we expect, something we know is imminent and in our future, something we feel we can prepare for, something we feel like we can brace ourselves for. That’s how life and death is. In the Bible, in the book of James chapter 4, verse 14 it says, “For what is your life? It is like a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.” In Psalm 103, it states in verses 14 thru 16, “For the Lord knows how weak we are. He remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone – as though we had never been here at all.” When you and I lose a family member or a friend, the experience itself paints a very
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LIVEOAKCHURCH | www.loumc.org | August 2019
BY STEPHEN HEBERT
