Has God got a purpose for me in my grief?

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

ACCEPTING that everyone grieves differently, we can still agree that the pain is the same awful reality for everyone. Why does grief hurt so much?

There is a purpose to it, but it is easy to miss it.

This is something that can only be learned the hard way and the long way. Yet, it can be tasted in an instant. It’s only something that comes to us when we find there is no other way.

How I wish more people came to be crushed by their life circumstances and, with repetitiveness, found nothing in or outside themselves that would help — then they might more readily find God. The trouble is, when people are crushed by their life circumstances they do find an inappropriate reaction or response within themselves or they find something external to themselves.

The quote that follows reminds me of the blessing in being confronted by a cruel twist of life:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves.”

— Viktor Frankl

There is something far beyond the life we take for granted and complain about. As soon as taking life for granted and complaint become luxury — because the darkness we’re plunged into bears no comparison to the light we enjoyed at ease — we sense we have always missed the depth to life.

There was always this reality, yet we really knew nothing of it, until this reality of lived pain became who we are.

So, we can see how it is a blessing to be forced to adapt. Suffering makes us humbler, more compassionate. It makes us more pliable, more mature.

If you find there is no escape for you from the sorrow and tears and pain, take heart. God is in the process of proving to you your purpose that you could find no other way.