Walking Through Grief
When in grief look for a quiet companion who might change everything.
Recovery from trauma takes time.
How much time?
The more we are shaken the longer it will take.
Here is the hard truth. When our lives calm to a better level of peacefulness all will not ever be as it once was.
Too much has changed. This means, to seek to a return to what we remember as “normal” is a setup for disappointment.
But this is not the whole story.
The way we grieve will change our final outcome.
It may, quite possibly, change the entire direction of our journey.
There is a great illustration of this in a story about Jesus found in the gospel of Luke. It takes place on Resurrection (Easter) Morning. Here is the account.
That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.
Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
And he said to them, “What things?”
And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24:13-35 (ESV)
Jesus could have announced who he was at the start, yet didn’t. Is this because he is a practical joker or is there a deeper lesson here on how to walk with those in grief and despair?
These individuals were disciples, followers of Jesus, and yet they missed the greatest event in history. This is not to laugh at them, Jesus never did this, but it is to show that all of us can end up grieving as those who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
In the same way Jesus walked with them he walks with each of us and our choice is the same as theirs. That is what is so incredible about the big story within Scripture. Even though the words are ancient, they are also timeless. They apply the same now as then. They bypass cultures and deliver universal truths.
Faith requires uncertainty, confusion, and at times even despair. This is the environment where it is exercised with the power to completely transform life — to turn sadness to joy and replace fear with courage and to do the hard and necessary things God is calling us to do. This is what Jesus was doing to bless his two discouraged companions. He was deepening their faith in walking them out of despair by retelling what they already knew but now in light of God’s bigger plan — the one he is continuing to reveal to you and me as we choose to seek his face even through our tears.
