Grief and Gratitude

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is biweekly and a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering with Dr. Sherri, we examined  The SONshine. This week we will examine Grief and Gratitude .  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”

 PROMISE: Ecclesiastes 3:4 Amplified Bible

Chorus

But drops of grief can ne’er repay

The debt of love I owe

Here Lord I give myself away

‘Tis all that I can do

PARABLE: Over the past few years I have learned more about the both / and concept. Before I opened my mind to a growth mindset, either / or was how I viewed things. I have learned that two polar opposite concepts can hold the same space in time. Particularly, I have learned that grief and gratitude can coexist. You can experience the emotion of grief generated by a loss yet at the same time offer God gratitude for being with you IN the loss experience. I know it is peculiar and does not make sense but the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit can give us an attitude of gratitude in the midst of adapting to a loss. 

I’ve shared in previous posts the despair that I have experienced from loss within my life. I understand the heaviness that sometimes walks with you like a shadow on the path to grief recovery. It is necessary to take the time to mourn our losses whether it is the loss associated with unemployment, death and dying, divorce, abandonment, addiction, illness, infidelity, relocation, incarceration, miscarriage, abortion, oppression, identity, or status. Taking time to grieve the loss and share your experience and feelings with God is a mandated part of the healing process. Christ is our example, He grieved the agony of His own death. Yet, with gratitude He obeyed His Father and took on our sins.

Everyone’s grief and loss process look different. What is the same is that the comfort of the Holy Spirit can help us to experience gratitude in the midst of grief. When life sends us grief, and it will, if we choose to give it back to God with a grateful heart, we can know He will meet us right where we are, right where we have need of Him. God is worthy of gratitude. We can offer thanksgiving to Him while we mourn because we know He is with us! We know He will understand. We know He will walk with us on the path of sorrow until our hearts lighten enough to adapt to the loss. No time expectation, just confidence of knowing the losses we experience on earth are temporary, one day we will weep no more and we will dance for eternity.

PONDER and WANDER:  Grief and gratitude are necessary and can coexist. As you review your losses over the last year are there any for which you still need to grieve and offer gratitude?

Soul care training exercise:  

• Reflect and let the Holy Spirit reveal to you any losses you have experienced over the last year that you need to grieve.
  • Notice without judgment and with a curious awareness what comes to your mind. Invite God into your sanctified imagination. Tell God the truth about this loss. What did it cost you? What do you feel? What do you need from Him as it relates to healing from the loss?
  • Next scan your mind and notice any small wins or victories you experienced over the last year.  Allow these thoughts and emotions to be illuminated in your sanctified imagination.
    • Focus on what God shows you and offer Him thanks for being with you and letting grief and gratitude co-exist. What will you see differently as a result of this? How will view grief and gratitude co-existing?

PRAYER: Abba, you are a GOOD GOOD Father. It hurts you to see us grieve. You want us to share our tears with you. We hand you the weight of the many losses we have experienced. We thank you that you are attentive to the things which concern us. Even though we are hurting, we thank you that you will lighten our sorrow. We will look for the small wins and victories. We will celebrate life. Our strength will be renewed in you. Hold us close until gratitude rises in our hearts. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen. 

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to offer Him gratitude. Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

The post  SONshine appeared first on Resonant 7.

BONUS Guided Meditation. I invite you to take 6 minutes to listen to the SONshine guided meditation.

Image attributions:  Text art app with words added