At Center & Main we're talking how our congregation has a great opportunity to redefine who we are and will become in light of the pandemic. Never before have we had to learn so much, adapt to so many variables and rely on one another while seperated from one another. We're reminded that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philipians 4.13). Through the prophet Isaiah, God proclaims, "See I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43.19). While hopeful that God is drawing us toward an interesting opportunity and that is both exciting and challenging. We are coming to a realization that things will never be the same.
There can be no going back to what once was and that reality brings on an insurmountable amount of grief and grief is express in a ton of different ways. It is if we are standing over a grave and staring at our mortality, or the death of loved one and we want it all back. We cry but we don't know why, we lash out and feel justified, we are trapped, physically and emotionally, in islands of isolation and we take on riskier behavior that will ultimately only prolong our suffering which will prolong our grief.
Breaking the cycle of suffering and grief requires an opportunity to face our grief, acknowledge that our exhibitions of sadness, anger, depression or anxiety are all expressions of our grief. And to know that seasons of grief come to an end over time so we should acknowledge our feelings (not justify them) and be gentler toward us and not feel the need 'to get over this' as much as 'go through this' (subtile difference) so that we can arrive in the other side of this season. You can't leap over grief you can only wade through it so when the wave of emotion comes acknowledge the reason ... It is grief ... And just as you would have great compassion toward someone grieving their loss ... You should have compassion toward yourself. Difficult days are slowly replaced with less difficult days and slowly we heal.
So when someone is sad or lashing out or acting out and exhibiting risky behavior they are most likely grieving a reality they didn't desire and yet life has dealt them, and us, something they didn't desire. They are grieving. Rarely do we chide or deride or tell them to get over themselves because they are grieving. To do so would be hurtful and lack compassion for their grief. Give them a hope and a future that they can at least see a glimmer of hope.
This extends to all levels of reality. Read the headlines, or comments, or Instagram or Twitter feeds and you only have to see the grief and the less than effective way which people are expressing their grief ... Most of which is unhealthy. Have compassion toward them. Help them know they are loved. And in their suffering and grief God is making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Help them see and perceive it ...
Peace,
M
