I remember getting the phone call from my friend early that Saturday morning.  I was shocked to hear that our friend had died in a car accident late the night before. But I had just seen her right before she got in the car and left! That was only hours ago and now she’s gone? The emotions were overwhelming—fear, confusion, anger, sadness and so many questions. Why? How? What happened?  Who’s fault was it? As a High School student those were my first real moments of encountering grief, and I was not sure what to do, where to go, or what to think. 

Grief is a universal response to loss that every human will experience.

In a world where death, sickness, transitions, and loss are common, grief is an emotional response that we each circle back to more often than we care to. As much as we as humans would love to avoid grief, it’s unavoidable and a part of life.

Over the past year many of you have experienced grief first hand.  You’ve mourned a friend or loved one who has died from Covid. Or you’ve made life, job, home, or relationship transitions that have been challenging and difficult.  Some grief has been connected to trauma from your past and other grief has been new and unexpected—much like my experience in High School. Whatever the case, for many of you, grief has been something you have recently or are currently working through.

In response to that reality, and the overwhelming desire I’ve heard from many of you to grow in your understanding of grief, I would like to take a moment to offer some initial insights and resources to help you as you manage the grief in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be posting various blogs addressing aspects of grief as well as updating a website of resources to help each of us as we seek growth in this area together. The website will seek to give brief summaries of important understandings and insights such as:

What is grief and its various stages? How does grief affect me? How do I cope with the grief I am experiencing?

The website will also seek to tackle some of the tough questions that often surface while experiencing grief. 

Is God punishing me? Does God care about my pain?

Finally, I also will post resources that will give us insight into how to help others walk through grief. 

As time passes more and more resources will be added, hopefully creating a useful library for you to reference in the seasons to come. (Also, please let me know what might be helpful and is missing!)

For now, here is what has been created: Library of Grief Resources.

Feel free to utilize and share these resources as you need. I hope and pray this website will strengthen your ministry and give you a deeper sense of confidence, trust and resolve as you confront the challenges of grief that come your way. May God Bless and lead each of you in this journey!