“Loss. It’s a word that many of us fear and few of us can evade. The experience of loss does not have to be the defining moment of our lives. Instead, the defining moment can be our response to the loss. It is not what happens to us that matters so much as what happens in us.” Jerry Sittser
All of us have suffered loss at one time or another. The loss of spouse, children, parents, job, health, marriage, childhood or any other kind impacts us in ways that we never could have imagined. Many of us are living with the after-effects of profound trauma or the loss of innocence that has left our lives forever changed. The world can look dark and without hope. I experienced the loss of my Father at the age of ten. In the blink of an eye, a tragic accident claimed my Dad’s life with my entire family in the car. It not only changed my family, but how I viewed everything. Tragedy forced me to grow up overnight. No longer a carefree kid, I faced the reality that bad things can happen in an instant. While I can still struggle with the fear of bad things happening everyday, I also believe that out of grief and loss, we can experience incredible healing and transformation. I am loving the book, A Grace Disguised, by Jerry Sittser. It has touched me profoundly and is unlike any other book on grief that I have read. It addresses the topic of how a soul can grow through loss and pain and begin a new life – “a life marked by spiritual depth, joy and compassion and a deeper appreciation of simple blessings..”
“Many people are destroyed by loss because, learning what could have been but failed to be, they choose to wallow in guilt and regret, to become bitter in spirit, or to fall into despair. While nothing they can do will reverse the loss, it is not true that there is nothing they can do to change. The difference between despair and hope, bitterness and forgiveness, hatred and love, and stagnation and vitality lies in the decision we make about what to do in the face of regrets over an unchangeable and painful past. We cannot change the situation but we can allow the situation to change us. We exacerbate our suffering needlessly when we allow one loss to lead to another. That causes gradual destruction of the soul.”
“God’s forgiveness will show us that he wants to take our losses and somehow bring them back upon us in the form of a blessing. This work of grace will not erase the loss or alter its consequences. Grace cannot change the moral order. What is bad will always be bad. But grace will bring good out of a bad situation; it will take an evil and somehow turn it into something that results in good. That is what God accomplished through the crucifixion. He turned the evil of an unjust murder into the good of salvation. God can do the same for us as well. We will not be delivered from suffering, but with God’s help we can be transformed by it.”
Grace and Peace,
Sheryl
Transforming My Life 