To Experience Loss
No one is excluded from experiencing loss in life. From losing something you use every day like your favorite pen to the loss of someone intricate in your life and dear to your heart. Both bring unpleasant feelings but are not comparable to one another when it comes to the heart ache involved. The loss of relationships/people is one of the hardest things that we must grapple with. How unfair it is, especially when unexpected. It leaves a huge pit of sadness and the question, “Why?”. I am no stranger to loss and the question, why. From the loss of lots of material items, to relationships, to life as I thought it should be for myself. And most recently the loss of amazing friends in a sudden and incomprehensible way. I will try to not get too biblical and preachy here but in times of extreme loss some people dig deep within faith for comfort. In this latest loss, I had to dig deep within my faith in search of a sense of comfort. What I have learned from past extreme loss is that there are no fast answers and true comfort cannot be attained from anything in the visible realm. With that, I asked for wisdom. The image of Jesus and his disciples came to mind. Deep sadness, disbelief, longing, emptiness, confusion, anger etc. must have been what the disciples felt when Jesus left them. Since I am a modern-day disciple of Christ, I can apply this example to my life. As the example in the bible goes, Jesus left the disciples, but God sent the Holy Spirit to replace the physical person of Jesus. God sent the unseen Holy Spirit to be their comforter and counselor, at all times. From this example, it made me realize that when something is lost, there is something to gain. The thing is, it might not always be replaced with something else tangible. Whenever we lose a person either to death or in a breakup it is the most extreme loss we can experience. Since that is the case, I choose to believe God has the greatest gifts to be found through times of loss. Intangible and invaluable gifts. A knowing that the pain is momentary in the grand design. An inner knowing that there is a reason for all things, but I don’t always need to know that reason. Only believe wholeheartedly that all things work together for good. A knowing that I too have the Holy Spirit, my comforter and counsel at all times. I then see Jesus, the man himself who lost his very own life for the salvation of mankind. He experienced more loss than I can even imagine. Since it is my goal on earth that my character be molded to the likeness of Jesus, I accept loss as a means to shape who I am at the core. What I have realized is that to experience loss is to KNOW and become close to Jesus. To me, that is the greatest gift we can be given and with that, I find comfort.