To View the Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cd0tT-LECXE
SHOW NOTES
Welcome to a new week of the Hope Rescue Podcast. We are in a short series talking about grief, and if you missed last week’s episode you may want to check it out. Last week, Kimberly talked about the pain of losing her father recently to COVID, how she is handling the loss, and how she is finding hope even in the darkness of grief. This week we are talking about how we should grieve as believers.
Kimberly explains that her father was the perfect example of having hope for the future. Her father was not afraid of dying. Before he passed away, Kimberly's father had lost his own father, his sister, and his mother. Second Corinthians 5:1-4 says, "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” Tents are temporary dwelling places that can be easily destroyed, but eternal homes made by God are permanent and everlasting. Our lives on earth are lived in tents, and as believers we know that when our tent is destroyed, we have a permanent home with our Father in heaven.
First Thessalonians 4:13 says, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” The first thing Paul the Apostle is emphasizing in this passage is that he doesn’t want the reader to be ignorant about death. The dead in Christ will be raised. When a believer dies, the body goes into the grave, but the soul is immediately present with the Lord Jesus.
When we are going through grief, we have choices we can make. We can choose to accept the loss or we can choose to ignore it and pretend like it's not real. Tim explains that the quicker a person comes to accept what has happened, the less power grief will have over one's life. A person may choose to ignore the loss temporarily in order to function to prepare funeral services and handle responsibility, but in the long term it is not healthy to ignore the loss of a loved one.
Tim wraps up by comparing the journey of grief to a road trip. When you are grieving, you will run into stops and delays that you didn’t plan for. You may end up at your destination at a different time or a different way than you originally anticipated, but that is okay. Allow moments of setback to occur, and take time to process what you are feeling. Trust God and allow Him to carry you through those moments.
Join us next week as we talk about a unique perspective on the different stages of grief.
REFERENCED SCRIPTURE
2 Corinthians 5:1-4 "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
