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Words of Comfort
It's important to take time to grieve the loss of a loved one, and not feel you have to quickly "get over it" or "move on". Here we've assembled some words of comfort that other grieving people have found helpful. If you'd like to share your own loss, you can do so at the Sharing Board.
After the Wave
Maria Cavanna
When the numbers of the dead and dying are so large that the average mind cannot comprehend them, it may be more helpful to try to feel the suffering of one.
The Tsunami: A Wake-up Call
Johann Christoph Arnold
The sheer magnitude of this event cannot be comprehended. So let us not get caught up in the tallying of the dead and missing. Let us become quiet, and ask ourselves, “What is it that God is saying?
Readiness to Die
Johann Christoph Arnold
When I looked into Dad's casket, a deep peace flooded my soul. I saw heaven on his face. He had the most contented look I had ever seen.
Taking Time to Grieve
Johann Christoph Arnold
There is no "answer" to the riddle of grief. But there is such a thing as community, and the knowledge of those who have experienced its blessings that even if one person, alone, cannot hold up under the crushing weight of loss, the heaviest burden can be lifted, or at least lightened when it is shared.
Terrell and Tariq
Jacqueline White and Jon Spayde
How does a hopeful immigrant who fled oppression react when his son is murdered in "safe" America? How does a peace activist respond when his own son is shot in the back and killed, an innocent casualty of apparent gang terror?
Tuesday
Misty Bernall
In this excerpt from her bestselling memoirs, a Colorado woman vividly recalls the day she lost her only daughter in the Columbine High School massacre.
The Lost Art
Johann Christoph Arnold
Mick and Bridie's only son was gunned down in Northern Ireland, and they wanted blood. So they tried suicide. But something stopped them...
Illness and Death
J. Heinrich Arnold
The fight of any individual against sickness or death shows us the struggle in which we all are placed - the struggle against darkness. When an attack of darkness comes upon us, we must put ourselves completely on the side of the light of Jesus.
Stillborn but Welcome
Jörg & Mary Barth
Common usage would term our youngest child "stillborn"--a life that was not really a life, an event one would rather forget. Other parents who lost a child at birth tell us they have been unable to talk with others about the pain of their loss. Hearing of our experience with Paul Michael changed that.
The Secret of Surrender
Molly Kelly
Suddenly widowed, this mother of eight struggled to gain control of her life, but discovered, along the way, the secret strength that comes from doing just the opposite: letting go
A Winter's Tale
Anthea Barth
A woman who lost both her children and the use of her legs in an accident tells her story and how she has found peace.
Long Row to Hoe
Johann Christoph Arnold
It's all well and good to talk about forgiving - but doing it? Read the stories of four people who, despite being horribly wronged, are working for true healing.
tapas - suffering
Sadhu Sundar Singh
When a sweet branch is grafted onto a bitter tree, both feel the knife and both suffer. But only in this way can the bitter tree bear sweet fruit.
Three Questions
Leo Tolstoy
What is the most important time? Who is the most important person? When is the best time to act? Simple enough questions - but as Leo Tolstoy shows in this classic short story, your life might depend on the answers you come up with.
Easter Tears
Johann Christoph Blumhardt
When Mary came to the garden Easter morning, she wasn’t just seeking what she had lost. She was weeping. And because of her tears, Jesus made himself known to her. It is the same today.
Blaming God
Johann Christoph Arnold
Frustrated by our inability to pin down a reason for our pain, which we are quick to see as unjustified and undeserved, we rebel against it and accuse God. "How can a merciful God permit this?" In the end, our frustration may turn to resentment, or even to rage.
When Eternity Knocks
Johann Christoph Arnold
To watch someone die is always a shaking experience. But death need not have the final word. And if it seems like it does, perhaps that is because we spend too much time focusing on our fear of it. Like animals frozen in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, we are so mesmerized by death that we forget the promise of eternal life that follows it.
Losing a Baby
Johann Christoph Arnold
The death of an infant is not only a painful event, but a particularly hard test of our faith. We wonder, "Why did God create the child at all, if it was to live so briefly?"
The Riddle of Grief
Johann Christoph Arnold
The love and community we all seek after the loss of a loved one may be easier to find in moments of shared grief than in good times, says this noted counselor.
In God's Hands
Johann Christoph Arnold
To believe that one is in God's hands, and to draw comfort from that belief, is a gift - and not only for the dying, but for those who mourn them after they are gone. But what about those whom death overtakes without such reassurance?
Be Not Afraid
Johann Christoph Arnold
When God's angel broke the good news of the Savior's birth to the cowering shepherds of Bethlehem, "Fear not!" was more than an instruction for them to get up off the ground and stop shielding their frightened faces. It was a declaration of war on fear.
Believing
Johann Christoph Arnold
Alice grew up believing in a God who heard her when she asked him to bless her mom and dad. Then her four-year-old son died.
The Childlike Spirit
Johann Christoph Arnold
Children tend to possess a greater tolerance for mystery. Even if they tend to fret over what we adults might see as "little things," they are generally far more accepting of life as it unfolds, and are not so bogged down by doubts, questions, and worries over the future.
Foundations
Johann Christoph Arnold
My one-day-old sister Marianne died when I was six. I never even saw her alive, yet she influenced my childhood as few others did. Her birth and death had a decisive impact on my sisters and me, as well as on my own children years later.
Accidents
Johann Christoph Arnold
Because accidents always seem senseless, most of us will readily jump to embrace the first plausible explanation that comes our way. And it will come. There's always somebody with a solution, a perfect preventative measure, or an "obvious" lesson on the tip of their tongue. But discovering the deeper meaning of an accident - if it even exists - is much harder.
Dying
Johann Christoph Arnold
Dying almost always involves a hard struggle. Part of it is fear, which is often rooted in uncertainty of the unknown and unknowable future. Part of it may be the urge to fulfill unmet obligations or to be relieved of past regrets or guilt. But part of it is also our natural resistance to the thought that everything we know is coming to an end.
God's Messengers
Johann Christoph Arnold
Despite the enormous interest in angels nowadays, few people seem to take them seriously, or to grasp their significance.
Else von Hollander
Emmy Arnold
The last months of Else von Hollander's life challenged all of us like nothing we had experienced before. Often it seemed she had already left us, only to come back again. One time, on awakening from a deep sleep, she said, "The life there is so much more alive than here!"
Resurrection
Johann Christoph Arnold
Across all cultures, men and women have found consolation and courage in the belief that death is not the end, but that it is followed by another, better life to come. How this next life will come about and what form it will take are questions that have occupied the human race down the centuries.
Finding Meaning in Suffering
Johann Christoph Arnold
As long as pain serves an obvious purpose - the pangs of childbirth, the soreness of exercise, or the surgeon's scalpel - we are content to accept it. But when we cannot see a rhyme or reason to it, most of us rebel.
Redemption
Fyodor Dostoevsky
In this excerpt from 'The Brothers Karamazov', the speaker is Dostoevsky's character Father Zossima, who, hours before his death, relates to his fellow monks the story of his conversion, in which his only brother, Markel, played a crucial role.
Suffering
Johann Christoph Arnold
When we approach the suffering of others by making it our own - we will find that, far from defeating us, it will rouse us to compassion, and community with the poor. Moreover, we will find that through solidarity, their hells, even if not completely overcome, can be seeded with love and hope for the future.
Dying We Live
Misty Bernall
When two gun-toting classmates asked Columbine High student Cassie Bernall if she believed in God, she said "yes". Can one word make a martyr?
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