Seeking patience

photo by Greg Lincoln

by Greg Lincoln

We must have the patience of Job.
When someone is in deep grief and mourning, it is our task if we so desire to help, to support them through their suffering. I don’t think we would ever be able to take away their grief, that is very deeply rooted and will be there to stay. That may not even be up to us even though we want to. It is up to God to do that.
Can you imagine changing your whole life and aligning yourself in a way so that you could ask God to take away your pain?
I think about our grandparents and how they lived life one day at a time. I imagine them as resilient and hardy, which is what we are striving to be. How were they able to live through the losses of their loved ones? How did they grieve? How do they find the strength to carry their grief through the decades?
We can see that the answer is in how they continued to live, they made the choice to continue on even through hardship.
Even small or subtle losses can affect us in amplified ways. Grief can be felt whenever something in your life changes and you lose something that is dear and familiar to you. Homesickness is a type of grief where you long for your loved ones who have moved away or if you move away. Even older people can feel homesick. We sometimes feel this way even when traveling on short trips. The feeling to be home can be so overwhelming.
There can be grief when you have to give up the things that you love. Every single one of us knows what this feels like and the list of things goes on and on.
We have realized that our bereavement loss has strengthened the bonds we have with our family and friends. They were there for us at our lowest, when we hit rock bottom and were weighed down with the heaviest pain and sadness known to mortal man. Thank you for being there for us and taking care of us. You are like physicians, caring for the deeply wounded, like ministering angels full of gentle kindness.
Grief is like a spectrum with varying stages of severity. Our grief is as different from any other person’s grief just like our individuality.
Do you know who Job was and why his patience is so legendary? Job lost everything: his pets, his health, and he even lost all of his children all at once. What he didn’t lose was his faith and his wife. Through his patience he made it through and was blessed in the end. He even had more children.
Children bring happiness. Like I said before, if you have any, what a priceless treasure you have.
Some days have been harder than others, some days have been okay. Let us pray for those who are silently grieving for someday we must all go through it, so let’s go through it together.