True and Faithful

Those Who Expect You to Get Over Grief Have Never Suffered Life-altering Loss

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Those who expect you to get over your grief have never suffered life-altering loss.

Get over your grief.

Yesterday, running errands and listening to my beloved Christian radio, I found myself shaking my head and talking back.

This speaker went on:

At some point, you have to put a period at the end of mourning. I know folks whose loved one died five years ago and they act like it was yesterday. Get over it. Ask for God’s help, mourn properly and for a proper time. {audience clapping}*

And my heart breaks for those grieving devastating loss five years later or fifteen years later. I want to look into their eyes and whisper over the hand clapping: God sees your pain. God knows your loss. No one else may understand, but God walks with you in it and has so much for you alongside it.

Those who expect you to get over grief have never suffered life-altering loss.

Their advice comes so well-meaning but is so off.

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The Cha-ching in Your Faith Bank

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building faith; daily disciples of Christian walk; cha-ching in your faith bank

The thing about trials is, they come unannounced.

One day, you’re eating carry-out pizza and saying goodnight like you have on a thousand other nights and the next, waking up to the final labored breaths of your husband.

Or three days into the new year, you open your laptop with great enthusiasm to start that new project pressing on your heart, when your college boy walks in from work complaining of a low backache that gets so bad so quickly he can’t walk into the ER. The MRI you thought might show a herniated disc? Instead reveals a lemon-sized tumor on his spine that has hemorrhaged.

None of us plan for these kinds of trials.

No one calendars the middle of the night phone call or the unexpected diagnosis or the unforeseen announcement at work.

The hardest trials usually careen into the most ordinary of days.

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40 Promises of God When You Need Hope

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40 Promises of God when You Need Hope | #godspromises #bibleverseshope #scripturehope

I’ve been at youth camp most of the week teaching middle school girls and just before leaving, I learned of a family’s loss of their husband and father. Then, on day 2 of camp, my feed filled with news of another tragic death, leaving a husband and girls without their mom.

These events are so mixed for me. There is ache for their deep loss. There is anger at the enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy. But there is also a knowing — that in their anguish, God will carry them.

Any kind of grief is excruciating work. It’s a daily going to God to exchange our despair for his sure hope. When your heart’s broken or life hits hard, here are 40 promises of God when you need hope.

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Hope Is Not Named Boaz

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Hope Is Not Named Boaz

Some things feel too vulnerable to share.

And while I’d prefer to keep the deepest layers of my heart tucked safely in, sometimes we just need the relief of realizing that someone else walking a similar path has experienced the same emotions and reactions we’re experiencing.

So while it feels a bit risky, it’s worth it if it lifts another sister up, redirects our heart and helps us live where we are and love where we are.

Because I was caught off guard at how soon after Dan’s death I became obsessed with remarrying.

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When God Doesn’t Give the Miracle You Prayed For

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When God Doesn't Give the Miracle You Prayed For

The headline made me stop scrolling: “Man Declared Dead, Comes Back to Life After 45 Minutes.”

I clicked through to read the details. The man’s wife had been woken up by his irregular breathing. Without any warning, he’d gone into full cardiac arrest and was rushed to the emergency room.  The doctors had done all they could to revive him, but he was later pronounced dead.

When family was called into his room to say goodbye, his son stridently declared out loud that his dad would not die that day. Minutes later, the father’s heart began to beat irregularly and a week later he left the hospital. No heart transplant needed. No vegetative state. He was fully recovered.

Doctors were stunned and they declared it a miracle. The father said prayers and God’s work had saved him.

We’d also prayed for a miracle and begged God to restart a heart. 

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