WARNING: This post will not be encouraging and might even frustrate you a good bit. It did me. As is often the case lately, I want to write this morning, but I am struggling to find the words or, more accurately, words that I think would be acceptable. Then I […]
Grief
100 posts
Jim West posted this response to an AP tweet: From the twitter- @AP: Rick Warren gives 1st sermon since son’s suicide, saying “God knows what it’s like to lose a son”: http://t.co/FwRc10ASFf -SS But does he? Does God, in infinite knowledge, experience reality just like we do? Such a god seems to […]
I am reading some science fiction for distraction, The Fall of Hyperion, recommended by my friend Rick. This is the second in trilogy and, as seems so often the case now, the themes are far more relevant to my immediate life than I expected. One character, a Jewish Philosopher named Sol, […]
I have known others dealing with tragedy who cope by focusing on their work, putting all their concentration into the various tasks at hand. That isn’t me. In many ways I wish it were, but as we move out of the semester and into the “research months” (as I call […]
Last night Chelsea beat Benfico 2-1 in the UEFA Europa League Final. I watched it from a hotel room in Utrecht and the game was played just a short train ride away in Amsterdam Arena, where just 10 months ago Mack and I watched Ajax beat the Celtics 4-0. Needless […]
At times I find myself imaging what Mack would be doing if he were still here, like yesterday at our aunt’s house for dinner. It is not so difficult to picture him playing games on the iPad or watching a program while the adults are talking. But each time I […]
Easter Day 2013 For the last three months this phrase has been running through my head, “We are of all people most to be pitied.” Certainly seems reasonable. In a space of a few short hours we lost our vibrant, healthy boy, just two weeks before his 9th birthday. Who […]
This is from a promotional blog post at Baker Academic’s blog for their Job commentary. I am not sure whether the comments are from Tremper Longman, the editor of that volume (the blog says “by Tremper Longman”) or not since it also says “posted by Bryan Dyer.” I any event… […]
One of the many books on grieving that have been sent to us is a slim little volume Good Grief by Granger Westberg. It is an excellent, brief summary of the various stages of grief that most of us go through, with particular emphasis upon the role of faith in grieving. […]
I have spent much of my academic energy since 1994 researching and writing about Lamentations, its interpretation, and people’s responses to crisis. And yet I still never know what to say to someone who is grieving. There are certainly words that I use and I know that the simple act […]