Grief, a Thief (Poem)

See the Grieving and Mourning series here

To dear friends who are deeply into grief,

I pray their sojourn in it will be brief.

It’s not because, for them I lack sympathy.

It’s that, for them, I perceive …Christ’s empathy!

Because to loss, grieving is a natural response.

In significant loss, we may find grief has ensconced.

Once it has settled into a ‘cozy cove’,

Across other areas of life, it may rove.

Here’s something with which we can identify:

A comfy focus on ‘Me, Myself and I’. 

The spirit of grief knows about this human trait,

And makes sure that, of such, we will have a FULL plate!

Daily, hefty servings of ‘who or what I’ve lost’,

Will eventually, your Christian joy exhaust.

What might The Spirit of Joy in Christ think,

When by ensconced grief, His saints are hoodwinked??

Throughout The Bible, The Lord promises, then He demonstrates, 

That in ‘Goshen-effect, difference-making’ acts, He elates!

He couldn’t act when, from Goshen, Jewish slaves were absent. ¹

So for Christians, what is our ‘Goshen equivalent’?? 

I believe it’s faith-based JOY that’s inexpressible, ²

That never quits in circumstances, unbearable.

If in significant loss, in joy we can’t abide,

Might The Lord’s Goshen-effect acts for us …be denied?? ³

If by trials of our faith, patience is induced,

Please tell me, what do trials of our joy produce??

Since FULLNESS of joy is …in The Lord’s presence, ⁴

Where are we, when our joy …has lost its puissance??

While grief is an initial, natural response to loss,

The spirit of grief wants to hang around, dig in and boss! 

Let’s learn to beat this spirit of grief at its own game!

Staying in JoY, denies its roots any place to claim.

Ponder these ‘fertilizer-to-fruits’ questions:

--Could a sustained focus on what I have lost, how I am impacted, and what am I to do now, possibly be the fertilizer the spirit of grief uses to distract our focus away from our peace, joy and hope in Christ, toward the deceptive, selfish cares of this temporal world??

--Could deep, protracted grief and mourning, possibly be the fruits of shunning The Lord's advice, through Paul, in Philippians 4:8-9??

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¹ See: The Goshen Effect (Series).

² See: 1 Peter 1:8.

³ In the New Testament (NKJV), faith is closely allied with Joy 6 times -- spiritually, the number of incompletion or imperfection. To you, what does that signify?

⁴ See: Psalm 16:11 and Acts 2:28.