{"id":62721,"date":"2020-07-06T21:25:23","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T03:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/?p=62721"},"modified":"2020-07-06T21:26:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T03:26:41","slug":"jesus-wept-dealing-with-grief-and-loss-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/jesus-wept-dealing-with-grief-and-loss-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cJesus Wept!\u201d Dealing with Grief and Loss during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Dr. Norm Henry*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our losses from the current pandemic have been extensive, at times staggering. Losing a family member is a great grief. Losing your job is scary. We grieve the loss of corporate worship. Livestreaming worship is good, but we long to worship together in the sanctuary. We miss giving hugs to family and friends! Spouses grieve not being able to visit their husband or wife in the hospital or nursing home. We cannot even grieve together in person for funeral\/celebration services. Our friends\u2019 losses grieve us too. All ages have lost contact with friends. We all are grieving\u2026but not together.<\/p>\n

Waves of Grief<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grieving is a normal human experience. Grieving is an attempt to work through the pain of loss, accept the new reality, and reengage in life. Holding onto hope helps greatly! Grief is the experience of sadness, emptiness, and emotional pain related to loss. The more intensely you love someone, the more intense your grief is at his or her death. Grief comes in waves, at unexpected times, in response to memories. Grief is sometimes overwhelming. Grief can involve shock, hurt, confusion, disbelief, anger, and especially sadness while moving toward acceptance. Grieving is not some simple systematic working through the stages. Emotions often spin around and resurface.<\/p>\n

Jesus Wept!<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do we comfort those who are grieving, while we ourselves are grieving? \u201cJesus wept!\u201d Since I am an alumnus of vacation Bible school, I know that is the shortest verse in the Bible but a profound verse. You know the story. Lazarus had died. When Jesus finally came, out of their grief, both Mary and Martha told Jesus that if He would have been there He could have helped. Jesus responded by weeping with them. He was willing to honestly express His sorrow, to be fully human while being fully God. Even those around could see how much Jesus loved Mary and Martha. Jesus did challenge Martha to believe even if she did not understand.<\/p>\n

Comforting Others<\/strong><\/p>\n

As discipleship leaders, you are positioned by God to come alongside those who are grieving, even if you do not know what to say. First, honestly bring your own grief to \u201cthe Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.<\/strong>\u201d Our hope is firm. So here are just a few practical suggestions. Listen. Many have said listening is a form of loving. Compassion means, \u201cto suffer with.\u201d When Job\u2019s friends sat listening, Job found comfort. Ask your friend how they are doing, and let them tell you. Let them raise questions and listen. Say genuinely \u201cI am so sorry\u201d or \u201ctell me what you miss most.\u201d Then say, \u201cI\u2019m not sure what to say. May I pray for you?\u201d Give them a call to see how they are doing. Send them a card like the old days. For yourself, and\/or your friends, read the Psalms aloud. The Psalms speak to our deepest emotions. Jesus promises, \u201cBlessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,\u201d by Him. So \u201cmourn with those who mourn.\u201d Have your handkerchief or tissues handy. Then engage in life with them as it is.<\/p>\n

Many good resources on grief are available, but here is just one for now. The title comes from Psalm 30:11. Turn My Mourning into Dancing<\/em> by Henri Nouwen. A friend gave me that book. It helped me.<\/p>\n

May God comfort you and use you to comfort others.<\/p>\n

*Norm Henry has served the church in many ways, being both psychologist and minister. For several years he worked with Pastoral Ministries and Clergy Development consulting and counseling with Nazarene ministers. Presently, he works with Nazarene Global Missions caring for missionaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Dr. Norm Henry* Our losses from the current pandemic have been extensive, at times staggering. Losing a family member is a great grief. Losing your job is scary. We grieve the loss of corporate worship. Livestreaming worship is good, but we long to worship together in the sanctuary. We miss giving hugs to family <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":62718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3891,3863],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articulos-covid19","category-covid-19-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}