The Problem of Grief
If I told you that tomorrow, all day you would be extremely sad, how would you react? Would you be dreading the thought of having to wake up? Would you know what to do? Would you strive for worldly joys? Ice cream, your favorite movie, a latte? Oftentimes, we are so repulsed by the idea of grief and sadness themselves that we often seek the quickest way out possible. In a world where there is a quick fix for everything, there are countless worldly quick fixes for undesirable emotions.
Five months into marriage my wife experienced a miscarriage. Being pregnant was not something that we were expecting, but it didn’t take long for us to be filled with joy and excitement over our first child. But as quickly as those emotions came, they went away, and they were replaced with brokenness, confusion, and pain. Why would God give us something we weren’t asking for at the time, let us rejoice and be thankful, only to take it away such a short time later?
My flesh was crying out, “it’s meaningless!” Sleepless nights, diminished pleasure in normal activities, and inappropriate guilt would be all too familiar in the following weeks. As Solomon says, “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief” (Proverbs 14:13). But by His grace, God revealed to us that the indwelling pain and grief was saying something far more true about the world He made than a forced happy face. And it was through this that His Spirit helped us not lose sight of the other truths about God and His divine will. Click here to continue reading…
