Grief and God: When Religion Does More Harm Than Healing

Grief and God: When Religion Does More Harm Than Healing PDF Author: Terri Daniel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780962306204
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description


Grieving God's Way

Grieving God's Way PDF Author: Margaret Brownley
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 0849949998
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Book Description
The loss of a loved one is devastating, and the grief that follows is often crippling. While modern Western culture has adopted an aren't-you-over-it-yet? attitude toward death and the grief it brings, the grieving process can take years. Weeks and months go by with no visible improvement. We might even wonder if God has forsaken us. Then one day it happens: We laugh. We feel connnected, restless, maybe even hopeful. We're no longer consumed by our loss, and our thoughts turn outward. These are the first signs of healing. Though the tendency in our fast-paced society is to suppress our grief or ignore it all together, Grieving God's Way inspires a different course of action. In this 90-day devotional Margaret Brownley provides the framework for a methodical grieving process that follows God's plan. Grieving God's way requires us to trust that He will lead us through the darkness, heal our pain, take away our weariness, and fill our hearts with hope, peace, and new purpose. From defining what grief is to validating its importance, Brownley gives us the components necessary to find God within our sorrow and grieve with Him. Divided into four sections, Grieving God's Way offers insight into healing our grieving body, soul, heart, and spirit. Infused with scriptures and inspirational haiku by Diantha Ain, this book motivates us to shift our grieving from man's way to God's way. . . slow and often invisible but with truly amazing results. So how long does it take to grieve? As long as it takes God to heal.

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die PDF Author: Sarah J. Robinson
Publisher: WaterBrook
ISBN: 0593193539
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Embracing Death

Embracing Death PDF Author: Terri Daniel
Publisher: O Books
ISBN: 9781846943607
Category : Death
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
EMBRACING DEATH examines common mythologies and misconceptions about death, and provides a roadmap to alternative perceptions via meditation, visualization and after-death communication. Using these innate, intuitive tools, Daniel leads her audience to new ways of understanding death, and offers innovative strategies for navigating the dying and grieving process. Her inspiring, heart-opening vision of birth, death and the afterlife gently guides the reader into the higher realms, where death is experienced as neither an enemy nor an ending, but simply the continuation of life in another form. She begins this journey by exploring the fear-based beliefs about death that are the cornerstone of Judeo-Christian thinking, and then submits a compassionate array of more empowering, less frightening alternatives. As a channeler, Daniel looks at death from the perspective of the dead and dying,

Faith Has Its Reasons

Faith Has Its Reasons PDF Author: Julie Kemp
Publisher: Tate Publishing & Enterprises
ISBN: 9781629945149
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Throughout this book you will learn how your struggles, heartache and tears eventually turn from a nightmare into a ministry. Within you will find encouragement to take the first step out of your grief and to climb the mountain out of the valley of the shadow of death. This book will also inspire those that may question heaven. A child's amazing visits to heaven gave him the courage to tell others about Jesus. His bravery and boldness after dying and losing his father will open your eyes to how God can use an unthinkable tragedy for his glory. If you have endured a catastrophic loss and questioned God, this book will show you how to persevere and find happiness again.

God Help Me, I'm Grieving

God Help Me, I'm Grieving PDF Author: Barner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781683146407
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 108

Book Description
Have you lost someone--or something--dear to you? At some point, whether through the loss of a friend or family member, a decline in health, or the end of a career or a relationship, everyone will encounter grief. After nearly twenty-five years in the mental health field, author and licensed professional counselor Katherine B. Barner is well-acquainted with the ways grief can impact a life. While grief is unavoidable, it is also a valuable aspect of the human experience. Utilizing Biblical examples of human grief--and God's acceptance of its complicated rawness--Barner demonstrates how a person's response to loss does not indicate a lack of faith but testifies instead to their humanity and the life-affirming choice to love and be loved. Filled with practical tips for handling loss and avoiding contention with those who lack compassion or grieve differently, this valuable resource includes a section dedicated to navigating holidays and events while grieving. Crafting this guide from her professional experience as well as from lessons learned during her own seasons of mourning, Barner offers compassion and guidance to those suffering a loss. Designed not only to assist readers through the process of grief but to grant them permission to fully experience it, God Help Me, I'm Grieving validates each reader's unique response to loss, allowing it to become a vehicle of inner change and spiritual and emotional growth.

Stuff That Needs To Be Said

Stuff That Needs To Be Said PDF Author: John Pavlovitz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578682501
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
Over the past few years, John Pavlovitz's blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said, has become a virtual hub for millions of people from all over the world, drawn there by his clear, compelling words on compassion, equity, love, and justice. This expansive, like-hearted community transcends race, orientation, gender, religious tradition, political affiliation, and nation of origin--and finds its affinity in the deeper place of our shared humanity, which is the True North of his writing. This collection lovingly pulls together some of John's most widely-read and most beloved essays on faith, politics, grief, and the elemental parts of being human. It is an encouraging, inspiring, challenging storehouse of "stuff that needs to be said."

Life After Grief

Life After Grief PDF Author: Rebecca Hayford Bauer
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441267972
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Book Description
When you experience a loss that changes everything, grief is only the beginning. Mourning for the life you once knew is a long and important process--but where do you go from there? Rebecca Hayford Bauer's loss was the death of her husband in 2003, but we all face loss of one kind or another. In Life After Grief, she shares her personal story of loss, grief and healing, and invites you to walk with her into the hope and uncertainty of new life. Each chapter asks one important question every grieving person faces on the road to healing, such as: • How do I view God? • Will I still trust? • Who am I now? • Who are my friends? • Will I dream again? Your life will never be the same . . . but there is still life to be lived. You can learn to live your new normal, grasping God's hand for dear life and trusting Him to guide you into the future.

The Voices We Carry

The Voices We Carry PDF Author: J. S. Park
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802498817
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Book Description
Reclaim Your Headspace and Find Your One True Voice As a hospital chaplain, J.S. Park encountered hundreds of patients at the edge of life and death, listening as they urgently shared their stories, confessions, and final words. J.S. began to identify patterns in his patients’ lives—patterns he also saw in his own life. He began to see that the events and traumas we experience throughout life become deafening voices that remain within us, even when the events are far in the past. He was surprised to find that in hearing the voices of his patients, he began to identify his own voices and all the ways they could both harm and heal. In The Voices We Carry, J.S. draws from his experiences as a hospital chaplain to present the Voices Model. This model explores the four internal voices of self-doubt, pride, people-pleasing, and judgment, and the four external voices of trauma, guilt, grief, and family dynamics. He also draws from his Asian-American upbringing to examine the challenges of identity and feeling “other.” J.S. outlines how to wrestle with our voices, and even befriend them, how to find our authentic voice in a world of mixed messages, and how to empower those who are voiceless. Filled with evidence-based research, spiritual and psychological insights, and stories of patient encounters, The Voices We Carry is an inspiring memoir of unexpected growth, humor, and what matters most. For those wading through a world of clamor and noise, this is a guide to find your clear, steady voice.

Ambiguous Loss

Ambiguous Loss PDF Author: Pauline BOSS
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674028589
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
When a loved one dies we mourn our loss. We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss? In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with such ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous loss and manage to leave their sadness behind, including those who have lost family members to divorce, immigration, adoption, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. With its message of hope, this eloquent book offers guidance and understanding to those struggling to regain their lives. Table of Contents: 1. Frozen Grief 2. Leaving without Goodbye 3. Goodbye without Leaving 4. Mixed Emotions 5. Ups and Downs 6. The Family Gamble 7. The Turning Point 8. Making Sense out of Ambiguity 9. The Benefit of a Doubt Notes Acknowledgments Reviews of this book: You will find yourself thinking about the issues discussed in this book long after you put it down and perhaps wishing you had extra copies for friends and family members who might benefit from knowing that their sorrows are not unique...This book's value lies in its giving a name to a force many of us will confront--sadly, more than once--and providing personal stories based on 20 years of interviews and research. --Pamela Gerhardt, Washington Post Reviews of this book: A compassionate exploration of the effects of ambiguous loss and how those experiencing it handle this most devastating of losses ... Boss's approach is to encourage families to talk together, to reach a consensus about how to mourn that which has been lost and how to celebrate that which remains. Her simple stories of families doing just that contain lessons for all. Insightful, practical, and refreshingly free of psychobabble. --Kirkus Review Reviews of this book: Engagingly written and richly rewarding, this title presents what Boss has learned from many years of treating individuals and families suffering from uncertain or incomplete loss...The obvious depth of the author's understanding of sufferers of ambiguous loss and the facility with which she communicates that understanding make this a book to be recommended. --R. R. Cornellius, Choice Reviews of this book: Written for a wide readership, the concepts of ambiguous loss take immediate form through the many provocative examples and stories Boss includes, All readers will find stories with which they will relate...Sensitive, grounded and practical, this book should, in my estimation, be required reading for family practitioners. --Ted Bowman, Family Forum Reviews of this book: Dr. Boss describes [the] all-too-common phenomenon [of unresolved grief] as resulting from either of two circumstances: when the lost person is still physically present but emotionally absent or when the lost person is physically absent but still emotionally present. In addition to senility, physical presence but psychological absence may result, for example, when a person is suffering from a serious mental disorder like schizophrenia or depression or debilitating neurological damage from an accident or severe stroke, when a person abuses drugs or alcohol, when a child is autistic or when a spouse is a workaholic who is not really 'there' even when he or she is at home...Cases of physical absence with continuing psychological presence typically occur when a soldier is missing in action, when a child disappears and is not found, when a former lover or spouse is still very much missed, when a child 'loses' a parent to divorce or when people are separated from their loved ones by immigration...Professionals familiar with Dr. Boss's work emphasised that people suffering from ambiguous loss were not mentally ill, but were just stuck and needed help getting past the barrier or unresolved grief so that they could get on with their lives. --Asian Age Combining her talents as a compassionate family therapist and a creative researcher, Pauline Boss eloquently shows the many and complex ways that people can cope with the inevitable losses in contemporary family life. A wise book, and certain to become a classic. --Constance R. Ahrons, author of The Good Divorce A powerful and healing book. Families experiencing ambiguous loss will find strategies for seeing what aspects of their loved ones remain, and for understanding and grieving what they have lost. Pauline Boss offers us both insight and clarity. --Kathy Weingarten, Ph.D, The Family Institute of Cambridge, Harvard Medical School