Grieving has stages but I think in most cases of intense suffering, we don’t move right through them.
We move into one stage and then fall back into the last one and maybe sometimes way back and so forth . . .sometimes over and over again.
Sometimes its a change in circumstances that move us forward and back or sometimes we just feel differently about things. Sometimes we feel closer to accepting our suffering and sometimes we just don’t know how we ever could.
It can be annoying to ride that roller coaster. It can be frustrating to make all that progress and then feel like we’re back in the beginning again. It can be very hard if our circumstances give us a glimmer of hope–and then snatch it away again
Sometimes we just feel like we want to get off the roller coaster. We get so sick of it.
But I wonder if we need it. I wonder if just barreling through the pain, through the process, without ever having those moments of hope or relief, if it would just be too much for us to handle.
That’s what I think. I think it may just be too much pain to move straight through.
And I think every up and down, as hard as it is, helps us to move a little bit farther ahead in that grief process. And so the next time we fall back, well, its not quite as far.
We do this over and over . . . and hey, we are actually making progress!
Believe it or not, I’m saying, the roller coaster is actually part of God’s grace, part of the way He guides us through these pain-filled times. We may not like the process–we may not like any of this–but we have to trust that God is leading us through it the way we need to go.
And yes, we are getting stronger!