Being Thankful During Loss
The experience of a deep personal loss triggers many emotional responses that we are often unable to control. We cannot and should not always try to control our emotions. We can, however, control how we respond to those reactions. In general, our responses fall into two categories:
Being regretful about the loss, leading to bitterness about what we no longer have.
Being thankful for the time we had before the loss and finding a way to move forward in a new direction - one we can only receive from God.
Walking through the emotion of loss is a long process, but along the way, we should be drawing closer to God.
Loss like any other event in life will either pull us away from God or draw us towards God.
God has given us the power to choose which direction we will go as we respond to life. We either retreat to our own defenses and struggle through life on our own or we continually renew our dependence upon God for our daily breath. Thanking God for every moment we have will lead us to a life that is more focused on God than self. Through the many losses I’ve had in life, I’ve found that an attitude of thankfulness allows me to hold on to memories with gladness rather than resenting that they were taken away from me.
The one thing in life we can’t lose is God’s love for us.
In the midst of loss, we can wonder why God allows us to suffer if He is good. God allows the suffering because of sin and because it forces us to depend on Him for strength. God can use our emotional weakness during loss to build a greater strength in us that can only come from depending on Him. Many times, those who go through great loss and hard times find a deep relationship with God. Trusting God through the journey of loss will often lead to a faith that others will yearn to emulate, but we can’t rush the process. Such maturity only comes as we allow God to slowly mold us over time as the potter works intently with the clay.