The gift of grieving.

Within the last couple of weeks there have been some special, hard meetings on the University of Tennessee Campus dealing with unholy racial relating. The campus ministers gathered together to offer some specific gatherings for students to process these ideas, but specifically for a night of lament. When I heard this, I was very stirred because lament and grief are important to me. They are actually a gift from God, but not usually practiced or embraced as a gift. I was asked to write some thoughts about lament and grief for our campus gatherings and I simply wanted to share one of them here.

The beginnings of Grief.

Is grief something that you have thought much about? Maybe you’ve never heard of it. Maybe it’s kind of weird or scary. It’s actually a really amazing and important thing and one of the most developmental things about it is that God actually understands grief. He kind of invented it.

In the bible book of Genesis we see that God created the heavens and the earth with all of its vegetation and animals. He then especially created man and woman and said it was very good. And in the mystery of the story, evil and sin took a real place in the story and in the hearts of men and women. As sin quickly took root, men and women related with God and each other in unholy ways.

In the bible book of Genesis chapter 6 verses 5 and 6 it says, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that the inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time (ouch!). The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.”

This is actually pretty hard to read because it is about us and our early family, but what is really important about it is that it tells us that GOD GRIEVES AND KNOWS PAIN. He has not shielded Himself from these things. He embraces them and He also embraces us and our grief and pain as well. That is actually amazing news. God actually made grieving a thing so that we could have a way to process our hearts and the painful, difficult things that we encounter on a daily basis. Isaiah the prophet said of Jesus, “He is a man of sorrows….acquainted with grief.” I get that. And He gets us. We’re not weird to feel sad and hurt and pained about things.

TAKE A STEP.

*What is it like for you to consider that God actually grieves Himself?

*What are some of the ungrieved stories in your life (things that have been really hard, but you have been afraid, hesitant or unwilling to process)?

*Consider writing them down as a way to start talking to God about them. (I know this can be daunting, but God invites us to grieve)

*Consider sharing about this with a trusted friend or mentor.

There's more.