Faith plays a major role in grief of any kind. But not in the way some people think. They often seem to have the idea that a person with strong faith does not grieve and is above this sort of thing. Moreover, these people imply that religious faith advocates stoicism. They might even quote the two word from Scripture, “Grieve not!” They forget to quote the rest of the phrase in which these two words are found: “Grieve not as those who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).
But religious faith–at least the Jewish-Cristian faith–has never said that a truly religious person does not grieve. What it has said is that there are good ways and bad ways to grieve, and that what a person considered to be of most importance in life will definitely affect the way he or she grieves.
Granger E. Westberg, Good Grief, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), pp. 10-11.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
