On grieving well

THE GIFT OF GRIEF:
Grief brings potentially useful blindness. The same One we could see yesterday clearly, goes dark, or into seeming hiding, behind the dark lens of our soul’s pain. Jesus taught us to pray to the One who sees us from the hidden space. (The Lord’s prayer-our model)
Help me to trust when i cannot see. And to allow that to be, our meeting space.
Grief is blinding and yet, if we allow it to work in us, we can enter new parts of God.
We simply must trust without fully understanding or knowing. And grief offers that opportunity. What an opportunity of transformation! God is the same in the dark, as He was in the light. In fact, He wraps Himself in night. The unseen informs the seen. The roots in darkness, supply all which is needed for the fruits which are seen.
Grief is a time to wait patiently and know. It is a place to get acquainted with The Man of Sorrows. It is a place to lose your sight in order to find it!
This is one of the gifts of grief to increase trust in the invisible God who sees, searches and knows us, even when we were in the mother’s womb.
Faith is easier than trust, trust must be developed, and grief is one of her developers! Especially in the areas where we go blind in pain. We can come out of it with a much firmer faith. I’ve experienced that, even in a limited way. When we go blind in certain areas, we have the opportunity to trust without seeing-by faith, not sight. When the wine is in the dark, it ages well. That’s where all its character is formed.
Grief has great potential for deeper formation of Christ’s life in us. It may be the most effective method of God forming His Life in us. If we stay with Him in it. Not denying our pain, nor His-for He does care about our suffering. But we can also from that place of personal grief, meet Him in His Suffering on another level. And that is transformative!
He showed me once graphically, that we cannot carry His Suffering, but He can carry ours! There was a time I was praying, and He was weeping, and I wanted to bring Him some tea, and He asked me to step away a few steps. I couldn’t bear seeing Him in that much pain. Then, He looked up, smiled and said, “I’m so glad you’re here.” He knew I couldn’t handle the level of pain He was experiencing. But He wanted me to see it, and realize what He who ever lives to make intercession is feeling. Yet, He was also really happy to see me. It was an intimate moment with Jesus, and taught me the difference between my pain and His.
Another time in a dream, i watched a singer who looked glorious to the audience from backstage, and he was bleeding all over and badly bruised, in real pain. But the audience could only see the star quality. I asked God what I was seeing.”He is interceding as He performs. “That’s My pain for this audience.” But they could not bear it. He alone does.
The potential for growth in trusting God is immense, as we cannot see so many things accurately when in heavy grief, we must believe that God is there, and seeing clearly for us, and He is good and working for our good. Just as beforehand.
It throws or thrust us, if we are willing, into another level of intimacy and trust with our God. Grief is a potential door into a deeper level of knowing and thus, trust in God.
Jesus trusted The Father even when being killed. That is the opportunity of grief. To fellowship with His sufferings in absolute blindness-His Sees, we do not, but we can trust He who was the same yesterday, is still there today! Those areas, we simply can no longer see Him—that’s where to hunt again and find Him! That’s where to faith He is there.
Others around us are not suffering today, so they can sense Him in another way. And it’s good to stay social while grieving! Keeps you more objective that your temporary lens is not the only one. But today we can see through the lens of our pain, and if we keep our gaze fixed on Him, we will see wonders, and be healed.
For ours is the tabernacle of suffering today, and that is the appointed meeting place with Our God, who is the same loving God yesterday, today and forever. And this is the day for you which the Lord has made, find it in Him, and be glad in it! Cry tears of Joy with Him–you won’t regret it! Don’t waste your blindness. Grieve well. You just may find the One who heals the blind there!