If we truly enter into the “Common Weeping” during this time of tragic suffering, we can be saved from our cruder emotions. Instead of airing our grievances, let’s uncover our griefs. The first destroys community; the second builds it.
From spreading ashes to administering them: Ash Wednesday for a broken and grieving minister
On Ash Wednesday, I will try to reconcile with a Jesus who stands before me, ready to offer the love I desperately need. I will try to find his hand amid my darkness, a brokenness that has nothing to do with my sin.
‘You can’t get much bigger’ than the public mourning of NBA great Kobe Bryant
The Jan. 26 death of retired NBA star Kobe Bryant touched off a wave of public mourning that transcended social class and grieved many who aren’t sports fans. And that came as no surprise to Chanequa Walker-Barnes, associate professor of…
What widowers wonder at night
It’s been nearly a thousand days and nights since my wife died. Yes, the Lord is with me. Yes, Hwa is with God. I just wish she were still with me.
50 years later, I still grieve my brother’s death: Looking back in order to look forward
In looking back on irretrievable loss, perhaps we can do a better job of capturing the here and now.
Why neither seminary nor pastoral experience prepares ministers for (their own) grief
“I was equipped to function in the midst of crisis and to be a non-anxious presence, but nothing prepares you or equips you for the grief over someone who is dear to you.”
Hope, peace, joy and love at Christmas. And sometimes grief and pain
Amid all the smiles and laughter, if you’re grieving this Christmas, it’s OK. Your anguish has a role to play.
Kyle Lake and Rachel Held Evans: alike in many ways and testimonies to hope
A high school graduation party for the daughter of a beloved friend who died 14 years ago evoked memories, sorrow, laughter and hope. But deep in the throes of sadness for those we lose, like Kyle Lake and Rachel Held Evans, is the reality of God’s stubborn insistence that life always follows death.
Embracing Good Friday’s pain even when Easter’s hope seems galaxies away
Good Friday isn’t just a set-up for Easter Sunday and the ham and new shoes that accompany that day. Good Friday is about grief. It’s about death and dying, pain and loss, emptiness and hopelessness. To beam the light in too quickly will render us unable to see.
Reclaiming joy in widowhood: a conversation with author Ella Prichard
In a book for new widows, author Ella Pritchard describes her experience of grief, recovery and “return to joy” in the months and years following the death of her husband, Lev, after 46 years of marriage.
You CAN go home again
When we use our imaginations, our grief and loss have the potential to become the silent, fertile seedbed for redemptive, life-giving deeds.
Churches should act to counter ‘Blue Monday’ blues, ministers say
Over a decade ago, a travel company launched an advertising campaign declaring the third Monday in January to be the most depressing day of the year. Some scoff at the calculations used to pick “Blue Monday,” which would be Jan….