With that being said, I decided to volunteer for a wonderful organization in Morgantown, WV called the West Virginia Family Grief Center. This organization provides the only grief support groups for families with young children in West Virginia. I am glad there is an organization like this, so please do not take what I am about to write as a hit against the WV Family Grief Center.
Because I am volunteering with the WV Family Grief Center, I was asked to take a class on grief counseling that is taught by a grief counselor in the area. Originally, I viewed this as an exciting opportunity because they did not teach us anything about grief counseling in nursing school, and I deal with families facing the loss of loved ones at work on a fairly frequent basis. I thought the class would provide me with more tools to help families who are truly struggling. What I found though, was even more enlightening.
So, I go to class. Most of the other people in the class had either social work or counseling backgrounds. I was a slight misfit, but I can handle that. Many of my classmates worked in healthcare, so that was OK. But I'm sitting in this class, and the instructor shows us a picture of an iceberg. I still don't understand that analogy. Somehow grief was supposed to be like an iceberg. I'm not sure how that works, but I don't think I want an iceberg. Icebergs are cold.
Another week, I go to this class, and the teacher tells us that grief is like a bag of rocks. When you lose someone or something, you add a rock to the bag. And you can never put the bag of rocks down, but you have to get stronger and learn how to carry the rocks and it gets easier. I sat there and thought, "But don't you eventually wear out?"
Last night, the teacher compared grief to a river. Grief is like this river you float on, yet you never reach the shore. You just have to learn to roll with the current. OK, Michelle has had enough!
It hit me last night just how thankful I am to not have to compare my burdens to an iceberg, a bag of rocks, or a river. I am so thankful that someone taught me about God and about how Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we can have eternal life. How wonderful it is to truly believe in my heart that there is more than life on this earth! I don't need a dumb poem about a "Rainbow Bridge" to cope with the losses in my life.
I'm NOT a Bible scholar by any stretch, but I can read. Romans 8:38-39 says "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither heigth nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus or Lord."
Tell me, is that not better than a picture of an iceberg?
Corinthians 15: 55-57 says "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"
Or what about something nearly everyone has heard of like John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."?
I think I would rather hear something like that than to be told that I had a bag of rocks to carry around for the rest of my life. Even though supposedly I'll "get stronger", eventually don't people become exhausted?
Oh and about that river with no hope for landing on a shore...
"I rejoiced with those who said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD'" Psalm 122:1. If I am not mistaken Jesus said something to that effect when he was dying on the cross, and there are days when I am truly homesick. Not for my parent's house in Keyser, but for an eternal home where people do not have to deal with the pain and suffering that goes on while we're here on earth. I very well may be on this river, and I may not know how far away I am. But there IS a shore for me to land on where there will be no tears.
Praise the Lord!
Dealing with death is still not fun. Please don't get me wrong here; however, I praise the Lord that He gives us what we need to deal while we're still here on earth. Knowing a loving God who loves us unconditionally and having a Savior who has experienced our earthly pain is SO much better than being told I have to carry around a bag of rocks forever. We don't have to carry the rocks. Jesus did that for us. Thanks be to God!
