Responding to a Loss

Often we learn the most about ourselves and what we value when something is taken away. It exposes the reality of what we want, and what is important to us.

At times our natural patience can deceive us. Initially we respond well to our loss. We say the right things, and do the right things; we continue to function. And, we do it well. Then we realize the change is permanent. Our attempts at normalcy fail, and nothing new or refreshing has occurred to fill the gap our loss created. Our true reality is exposed. A vital part of who we thought we were and what we considered important in defining us is gone.

What is that something or someone that has been taken from you?

How have you responded to the loss you have experienced?

Has your patience been replaced by disappointment, discouragement, anger or bitterness?

Do you despair?

Have you given up?

What are we to do, and where do we go for understanding to overcome what our loss has exposed. How do we fill the void we now know is there? To whom do you turn? Where are we to go?

First, we need to admit those negative thoughts and emotions. And, we need to admit a war and battlefield exists in our thoughts. A war between the quiet patience we knew and the frustration and anger that threatens to overtake us. Slowly we have observed the negative behavior’s war to control our emotions, and threaten manifestation in our actions. We are not in a good place.

Scripture explains what is occurring, ‘Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.’ (James 4:1-3)

Please consider these verses as addressing our heart focus. When we experience quarrels, and fighting within ourselves, it is because we want something we cannot have. We want something now, or we want it back.

We want our own way.

Our new reality may determine we never have those losses restored. If this is true, how will we continue to function in a joyful, meaningful way? This can be determined through self-examination. Who and what are we living for. If our purpose is self, we will always experience warring within. Our loss will become our identity.

If we live for another, if we live for God and desire to glorify Him in and through our losses, then our acceptance of what we have lost honors Him. We live for Him and serve Him through trusting Him at work, doing something, even though we do not understand.

‘In him we live and move and have our being' Acts 17:28

Do you know how to do this?

#loss #important