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 (I Thessalonians 4:13 ESV)
Grief
One of the feelings that we sometimes deny Christians should feel is grief. We are all ‘supposed’ to be cheerful, happy-faced, giddy, and in denial of anything sorrowful.
But that is NOT what Paul says about grief.
Grief (sorrow regarding situations, relationships, pain, suffering, or any of sin’s effects) is a normal thing… a natural thing… even a Biblical thing.
But our grief is not like the rest of the world’s.
Because anything that produces grief WILL be fixed by Christ’s ever-establishing kingdom. As my favorite hymn puts it: Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure. And heaven, in that hymn, is not referring to some off-in-the-future existence… it refers to God’s rule.
Christians’ grief is different, because every grief we experience is an opportunity to discover Christ’s hope again.
Christians’ grief is different, because we have hope that we will understand what God is doing in our oft sorrowful lives.
Christians’ grief is different, because while real, deep, and painful, our grief is temporary.
We are peculiar, we have a different grief.