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12. LOSS

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved… Jesus wept.

John 11:32-35

Calling
NOW

Called Through Grief and Loss

Do you hear them? So many questions! And the questions we throw at God come fast and furious when we are gripped by loss and grief. Why cancer? Why divorce? Why miscarriage or addiction or loss? The list goes on and on… And, often, we don’t get the answers we hope for. But what if, when we ask our questions, we’re really summoning the courage to invite Jesus into our darkness? What if, like Mary in this encounter, when we go to Jesus with our “where were you” grievances we experience the Spirit of Jesus weeping with us?

Mary, her brother dead in the tomb, basically asks Jesus, Where were you? Likewise, Meg has asked this very question (and so many others) in the moments, days, months, and years since her mom’s suicide… Where were you, Jesus?

Our questions call us to the heart of God through our grief and loss—the God who made us longs for a deep, intimate relationship with us, and our raw questions obliterate the distance we keep from Him.

This poem by Jan Richardson, “Blessing the Questions,” invites our authenticity…

Let them come:
The questions
that storm through
the crack in the world.

Let them come:
the questions
that crawl through
the whole heart.

Let them come:
the questions
in anguish,
the questions
in tears.

Let them come:
the questions
in rage,
the questions
in fear.

Let them come:
the questions
that whisper themselves
so slow,

the questions
that arrive with
breathtaking speed,

the questions
that never entirely leave,
the questions
that bring
more questions still.

Let them come:
the questions
that haunt you
in shadowy hours,

the questions
that visit
in deepest night,

the questions
that draw you
into rest,
into dream,

the questions
that stir
the wakening
World.

12. LOSS | Exploration Questions
  • What resonated or moved you in Meg’s story of the loss of her mother?
  • What losses in your life have drawn you closer to God, and what losses have pushed you away? Explain.
  • Mary sat with Jesus, released what was raw inside, and then wept together with Him—what do you need to “release to Jesus” right now, and why?

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