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When I am strong, I
will fight,
and when I am weary of the fight
I will rest in You ,
for Your love cannot be beaten.
When I am alone,
when I feel the icy touch of fear,
I will take it in my hand
and hold it out to You,
and in the heat of Your love
it will melt away.
When my heart feels isolated,
when no one can comfort me
and the crowd serves
only to remind me of how alone I am,
I will look within myself where You wait
and I will remember to allow You to love me.
Then when the joy is so strong
that I cannot take life in quickly enough,
I will remember to take a moment to sit with You
and appreciate the beauty You created.
And when the night comes,
I ask only that I be alive with peace and faith,
so that I may not fear
the new day that lies beyond.
Alison Browne (aged 21) |
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Some of us compensate for the losses we
have sustained in life by “talking our grief out.” Others of us
prefer to immerse ourselves in physical endeavours; so much so that
some might mistakenly assume that we were not grieving at all.
Others again express their grief
emotions through writing, photography, painting or music, perhaps to
“memorialise” the person or thing that we have lost. Journalling,
too, provides a creative way to express grief emotions, without
overloading our support networks. It can be helpful, too, to write
with a particular person in mind, addressing updates to a loved one
– or directly to the Lord Himself.
Books are such outstanding friends.
They reduce our sense of isolation and involve us in each other’s
pilgrimages. God inspires those of us who have a call to write so
that you can pick us up or put us down whenever you feel like it!
Given that by no means all the
opinions we come across will prove helpful to our emotional or
spiritual growth, we dare not allow grief to switch our discernment
off. There are all too many who will tell us that God is no more
than a distant power, who will do nothing to help or guide us. There
are better ways to adjust to our new situation than to reduce our
faith to fit such dismal assumptions – especially if they fly in the
face of all we know about the God we love and serve.
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Reflect and Pray
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Lord, we cry to You,
don’t let grief shrink our faith
or narrow our perspectives!
Help us to study and to read
beyond our normal reading habits,
and in so doing –
turn sadness into joy,
sight into insight
and make us more alert
to what You are saying and doing.
In Jesus’ name, Amen. |
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Serif photo dvd |
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Grief that Inspires Creativity
There is nothing more inventive than suffering.
Nazianzen
Many of the writings, compositions and paintings that speak most
deeply to our spirits, have emerged from the shadow of dark times.5
Just think of the impact that Joni Eriksson's books and talks have
had, following the victory she won over depression in the aftermath
of the diving accident that left her a quadriplegic.
Read More. . . |
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Back to top
Main Index
On to Grief that Inspires Creativity
Back to Part Five - Strategies for Resolving Grief, The Sacrament of
the Present Moment
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