Dec 8, 2022
Faith and grief are often hard for many people to feel at the
same time, especially when people are from a Christian background.
Christians grow up learning that God has a plan for the world and
that God’s Plan is inherently good. We are taught that challenges
are placed into our lives in order to help our faith and build us
into better people. After the death of a child, those statements
that we all accepted are a bit harder to take. I'm not saying that
they are not still true, but they are more difficult to accept.
We struggle when we don’t like God’s Plan. We feel guilt that
perhaps we aren’t good Christians if we are feeling our grief
deeply and showing our emotions to the world. Even worse, family
and friends often put pressure on us. They encourage us to trust
God’s Plan. They are uncomfortable seeing us actively grieve. They
get worried that our faith is somehow not strong enough if we show
too much emotion.
This is why I absolutely love today’s guest, Derek. I can honestly
say that I have never spoken to anyone who can cling to God and
truly feel the depth of their own personal grief at the exact same
moment, as well as Derek. Speaking with him brought me to tears
more than once and inspired me in my own faith. He reminds me that
God is OK with me feeling my grief. He is patient and does not
demand that we push aside our grief in order to show we have faith.
We can, and should, hold grief and faith together. Derek is an
amazing example of how this can be done well. I hope and pray that
I can become a little more like Derek each day.