CONQUER GRIEF OR BE CONQUERED BY IT

(These thoughts are changed twice a week)

James Barrie put it this way, “God gave us memories that we (might) have roses in December,”
Do you concentrate upon the roses or are you impaled upon the thorns?

Do you grieve because you have lost your health? Then let me tell you of a man who weekly conducted a radio program that brought solace and good cheer to many listeners. Few knew that for 14 years he had been bedridden and was blind. Few knew that in his later years his body stiffened and finally froze to such a degree he could not move. All those who listened only knew that they heard messages of hope, words of wisdom, the voice of a radiant spirit that glowed with the eloquence of strength and caring.

Would you find healing or advise someone else how to find healing? Sup then on those things that feed and soothe your soul. Walk outside and breathe in the spirit of God speaking to you from the existence of millions of blinking stars. Look up at the universe and feel the eternal extension of it. Walk quietly where there is the roar of an ocean shouting its power against the shore, or the rippling of a stream playing its musical notes against the stones, or the hint of a new day blushing the horizon. Plant a seed. Hold a leaf in your hand. Henry David Thoreau in his little house by Walden Pond once wrote, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush (is) aflame with God.”

Do not succumb to thoughts that are tattletale gray. When tears are falling, the first thing you need to do is paint the dull, dead landscape of your thinking with colorful thoughts and a colorful faith. Things are not going well so you are not thinking bright yellow or bold red? It is understandable.

Should you attend a funeral service in pulsing pink? Probably not, but permanent black for an incessant forever isn’t a good idea either. You want to be alone when your world has come apart at the seams? Quite likely. But this is why you shouldn’t give in to giving up. Rather unclench your fist and reach for heaven's radiance. Let loose the vigor of God on the lethargy of your sorrow.

“Grief,” said Disraeli, “is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief is the blunder of a lifetime.”