Liturgy 014: Grief and Spirituality
☕️ 5 Minutes to be present to God, Self, and Others
🙏 Prayer
Slowly pray these words:
God who saw Hagar in her grief and despair, come visit us as we seek to find solace from the Abram and Sarai characters of our own lives. May we discover what Hagar did in the wilderness — a God who is near to the broken.
Through Christ our LORD
Amen
📖 Lectio Divina
Psalm 6:6, NLT
I am worn out from sobbing.
All night I flood my bed with weeping,
drenching it with my tears.
💡 Quote
Our society encourages us to avoid, ignore, or run away from our suffering. We are told that happiness can be obtained by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, but this is not the way of the spiritual life.
🧘 Reflection
I was not given a theology of grief.
I was told God had destined me for greatness.
I was told God died for my sins.
I was told to be holy.
I was not told of God’s location and emotion in the presence of grief.
So when I experienced betrayal within the church (a very common experience), I was not sure what to do. My limited theological toolset (and culturally imposed expectations of masculinity) told me to:
Blindly Forgive.
Believe God was going to use this for my good.
Ponder if I was being punished by God.
The presence of grief was a problem. How do I get rid of this? How do I get out of this?
But Christian Spirituality invites us to embrace, name, and express the presence of grief. The Scriptures are full of prophets and saints who mourned before God, including Jesus. The Psalms give us language, and permission, to express our griefs before God. Saint Peter puts it in simple didactic terms like a good fisherman turned apostle would: Cast your cares upon the LORD because he cares for you.
What sadness, grief, or anger are you pretending not to carry in your body? Name them before God in the place of prayer. The way of becoming whole and deepening your life of prayer begins with honesty and vulnerability.
🕊️ Blessing
May you come to know the God who grieves alongside of us. As you name your grief before God, may you surrender your need to be a Messiah, and learn to mourn with those who mourn.
Amen.