Good Grief

As is so often the case, a new post to my blog is just the beginning of processing a truth, or truths, that God is trying to show me. My post on grief was no different. Since I wrote it, God has been impressing on my heart that I wasn't finished...or He wasn't finished. What I wrote is very true. But I missed another truth about grief. An important one. Grief is good. Had Adam and Eve never sinned, grief never would have been a part of our lives, our world. But they did sin; and that thrust the whole earth into a long season of groaning and grief. Creation itself has been effected by sin and grief, and what we see is a mere representation of what awaits us in Heaven and on the New Earth. [So cool considering the fact that I have seen some breathtaking beauty on this earth.] Anyway, I'm beginning to understand more and more that grieving and lamenting is a very important part of a believer's life. I believe it's one of the most effective methods God uses or allows to get our attention, to draw us closer to Himself, and to increase and intensify our desire to be Home with Him. We're supposed to live with an eternal perspective, and hurting in this life definitely serves to make me more acutely aware of that. Grief is a powerful tool that God can and does utilize to deepen intimacy with us; and then bring us to the point where we can more effectively encourage and minister to others because of the grief we've experienced and He's brought us through....eventually. The timing of that will be different for each person, in each situation. So, I've made the conscious decision to continue to embrace the grief that I experience over Judah. As well as any other grief God allows into my life, because I know that as I embrace it, and run to God with it, He will accomplish His good work in me. I will grieve, mourn, and lament as only a believer can, because I know what this world was meant to be, groans for and longs to be, and what this world will someday be. And who I will someday be!