Grieving is usually defined as the process that accompanies the act of letting go of something.  Typically, we talk about grieving in reference to one’s response to the death of a loved one, but other losses require grieving as well.  A person going through divorce experiences grief over the loss of their spouse, just as a person diagnosed with cancer will grieve the loss of their health.

Sometimes we even find ourselves “letting go” of something we thought we had, but didn’t.  This happens when a husband or wife discovers their partner was cheating on them.  At that point they must cope with the reality that the image of the faithful spouse they previously had was a lie.  Regardless, grieving is tough.  And there aren’t any magic solutions to make it easier.

One thing that the research seems to agree about is that the grieving process includes two key emotional elements—appropriate anger and appropriate sadness.  Appropriate in the sense that either of these two emotions can become dangerous when misdirected or unregulated.

I don’t remember where I first heard this illustration, but I love using it: emotions like anger or sadness are much like the warning lights on your automobile dash.  They exist for the primary purpose of alerting you to important realities.  Much as, say, your check engine light comes on to alert you to potentially concerning mechanical issues, anger “comes on” to alert you to injustice, just as sadness alerts you to loss.

Injustice and loss are two difficult realities to digest, and that’s why grieving is tough for all of us.  But for the Christian world, there’s an extra wrinkle.  Basically, it’s the belief that somehow God is behind the pain and suffering we experience.

“People tell me God must be allowing this to happen for a reason…” is one of the things I hear most often from individuals going through tough situations.  The problem with telling a grieving person something like that is that it puts the responsibility for the problem on God, as though God were the major force behind the loss they’re experiencing.  It’s not.  God isn’t evil, and He doesn’t perpetrate evil.  Loss and pain are the result of living in a broken world.

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Here’s my point: when we talk to a grieving person as though God is somehow responsible for their difficult circumstance, or at least, for not stopping it, we rob them of their potential to experience productive anger.  Anger—the sense that a situation is not fair—seems strange, or even wrong when directed toward God, whose character is defined by fairness.  Christians going through this often struggle with their faith, or feel guilty, thinking that they are mad at God, and wondering if that’s okay.  The truth is, they’re not mad at God; they’re mad at the unfairness of a broken world.  That most certainly is okay, and as long as the anger is appropriately controlled and directed, it’s part of the way out of grief… it’s part of how you truly let go of what you lost.

[bctt tweet=”[bctt tweet=”If we make God responsible for the loss, we rob the hurt individual of their right to appropriate anger.” via=”no”]

Romans 8:28 (NLT)
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together* for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28 simply says that when we are online with God’s will, no matter what we experience (good or bad) God is at work for our good.  It doesn’t mean that God causes bad things to happen, it simply means that even in a broken world, even in difficult situations, God is orchestrating events to bring about good.

It’s okay to be sad when we lose people or things that matter to us, or when we experience pain.  It’s okay to be angry at the unfairness of this broken world when that happens.  It’s just also important to remember that God is at work behind the scenes doing amazing things that are for our good.

If you’re going through a season of grieving, I pray that God will help you process the emotions you’re experiencing as quickly as possible, and yet as thoroughly as necessary.  Try to remember that this is temporary.  While the deepest pains we experience may leave permanent “scars,” the pain of loss lessens considerably over time, so hang in there.  Lean heavily on God and people who love you.  Take it one day at a time.

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