Loss

Loss is an inevitability of life. Mainly because as sure as we take our first breath there is guaranteed to be a last one. When we love others whether blood family, friends or spouses we are going to go through the pain of loss if we live long enough. It doesn't seem fair especially when we lose someone we love tragically or if they had to suffer a long battle with an illness that took them away from us. The thing that can make loss worse for some of us is trying to deal with it in a way that will make other people happy instead of going through the emotional process until we get to a place of healing for ourselves.

For the Christian, when we become angry over the loss of a loved people look at us as if we lost our minds. Yes, we can become angry with God, especially after we have prayed in earnest to save the life of the ones we hold dear. Just because we get angry does not always mean we are having a crisis of faith. Anger is just one of the many emotions loss brings upon us.

When we deal with our emotions, including any angry or hurt feelings towards God it is the start of the healing process for us. For many the overwhelming pain from losing our loved one(s) is the first emotion we feel. As the pain becomes less consuming anger will begin to set in. We are often angry over the loss because we want to know a few things that only God can answer:

• We often want to know why the person had to die or suffer so much before dying
• Why weren't our prayers answered
• Why wasn't a measure of grace and mercy bestowed upon us
• Did God even care that His faithful servant(s) went through so much pain

More questions come up for each of us. Some of these questions are answered in time, while others may simply remain a mystery to us. Deep down we know that God has a plan for everything and that His will is to be accomplished. However, when His plan and will involves us losing someone we love before they even get a chance to live a full life, then we need to understand the reasoning behind it to find peace for ourselves.

Sometimes we just have accept that God will not reveal to us the reason(s) why. That acceptance of loss takes time. While we are going through our pain, anger, confusion and the other gamut of emotions that come with loss, I encourage myself and others to still seek God out. To seek comfort and strength from Him to carry on. To trust that the emotional turmoil will not last always that morning will come and we will see sunshine once again. Continue to praise God for the ones who are still in our lives and thank Him for allowing us the time we had with the one(s) we lost.

I've written this before and I still believe this to be true, even when going through the storm of loss:

Not even our storms can separate us from God's love. However, to prevent our storms from taking our focus away from God we still need to praise Him at all times.

In midst of the pain, anger, bitterness, etc., of our loss it is then we need to hold onto God more so that we do not become lost...