Grief Unobserved

I was thinking today about grief, and I’m reminded that there are many points of grief in our lives which we fail to recognize. We see the big ones – death of a loved one, severing of a friendship – but the smaller ones go unnoticed. They sting and cut and slowly cause grave injury. They color our worldview and our perspective of others. The big griefs, we face head-on, determined not to let them stop us. The small ones, we ignore, and all too often, they are our undoing.

“Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.” 
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Here’s my encouragement and my prayer: Don’t ignore the small points of grief in your life. Lean on God’s strength just as you would if faced with the death of a loved one. While you know he is sufficient to handle even your most intense moments of pain, remember that he is also attentive to even the faintest of whispers of it.

He cares about even that which you ignore. He wants to heal that which could ultimately destroy you. Allow him room to do so, because he won’t force himself on you. He waits for you to ask, then steps into his role as healer, comforter, encourager, and sometimes, as a crutch to get you back on your feet again.