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This week for our devotions, Pastor Brook is looking at several quotes from the book “Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep.” This is a book we are studying through the Lent and Easter Season. Our first gathering is on Monday, March 11th at 7pm at the church.
“But unless we make space for grief, we cannot know the depths of the love of God, the healing God wrings from pain, the way grieving yields wisdom, comfort, even joy. If we do not make time for grief, it will not simply disappear. Grief is stubborn. It will make itself heard or we will die trying to silence it. If we don't face it directly it comes out sideways, in ways that aren't always recognizable as grief: explosive anger, uncontrollable anxiety, compulsive shallowness, brooding, bitterness, unchecked addiction. Grief is a ghost that can't be put to rest until its purpose has been fulfilled.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep
This quote had me really digging into just what is wrong with our world. She hits it right on the mark, doesn’t she? “Explosive anger, uncontrollable anxiety, compulsive shallowness, brooding, bitterness, unchecked addiction…” Wow! Spot on!
But could she be right as to the cause? Maybe the greatest cause of all of this isn’t politics or fear, but instead the fact that we just don’t make space for our grief. Could it be that we just don’t trust God enough to bring our deepest grief to the surface. Instead, we stuff it, and silence it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work. Grief is too big for us to stuff it.
Take some time to reflect today on some of the losses you have suffered these last 5 years. Is there anyone helping you hold all of this? Is it maybe time to release some of that weight and pain to our creator, redeemer, and sustainer?
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