Dear All of Us,
"Good Grief Charlie Brown"
and all the rest of us too.
And yes, there is
GOOD GRIEF.
It has many-much manifestations,
tones, touches, intensities,
as we try to deal with a casket
of loses and hurts -
death, betrayal, frustration, denial,
failures, mistakes and missteps.
One of them is Lamentation.
It comes to us from
the Hebrew experience and prayer.
It's unabashed and intense.
It's grief prayed.
It's dealing directly with
the "Downs" in life -
the dead, the dark, the decayed,
the disastrous, the dirty,
the disconcerting, the drudgery,
the disappointing, the discouraging,
the disgusting.
GOOD GRIEF
LAMENTATION PRAYER
is choosing not to deal with all that
in a silo of the solitary,
but breaking out of that lock up
and taking our whole damn desperation
directly to God.
Sometimes we just dump it in front of God.
Sometimes we fling it at God in rage.
Sometimes we scream it at God.
Sometimes we whisper it to God.
Sometimes we just stand there
naked and bleeding,
be that body, soul, or both.
Whatever, however, it's good
to get the bad to the Good, to God.
That gets us off "dead" center
and going in the right direction with it all.
God is more than able to handle
our outrage/outburst.
It's like a loving parent
holding a troubled toddler.
Getting it to God gets us there too -
just where we need to be in our grieving.
We detail our dread to God
as we feel it, even fear it -
depressed, outraged, confused, scared,
and we do that all the way from
quietly to loud demand.
From isolated distress we are drawn
into God's embrace, into stabilizing,
felt confidence in God
and we say so warming in grateful praise.
The knot of grief opens
as we are enfolded
in care, in strength, in
The Love Who Is God.
"Good Grief Charlie Brown"
and all the rest of us too.
Way to go with it!
John Frank
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EMBRACED
"For surely I know the plans
I have for you, says the Lord,
plans for your welfare
and not for harm,
to give you a future with hope."
Jeremiah 29:11
"Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted."
Matthew 5:4
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"Come to me all you
who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28
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What a joy to welcome first timers here.
Among others this week are participants
from Turkey, The Netherlands
South Korea, and Great Britain.
We are blessed by your company
in our weekly gathering here at
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
- it is posted Thursdays by mid-day
east coast USA time
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
( easily bookmarked )
- it arrives by email on Fridays
sign up above right
- past posting are available at
Blog Archive
lower right column
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May we God Grieve
freely and fully.
It'll make
a heaven of a difference.
See you all next week!
******
