Styles of Grief

This is, very definitely,  putting the cart before the horse and describes something that I am convinced, more and more, will never happen.  But, in the loss of our wonderful friend Maggie, our Golden Retriever, I have come to understand that people each have a unique style of grieving.

I've blogged about Maggie many times, during her prime, her decline and death and in the aftermath of losing her and I won't analyze why she affected me as profoundly as she did.

But, I will say that Evie and I both felt her loss intensely but that we have dealt with losing her in very different ways, ways that are natural to us.  And, I'll add, ways that could have created conflict if we were both not as self-aware and as committed to each other as we are.

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In recent years,  I've made a serious study of repentance in the Word, in history and from practicing it and in calling others to repent.  And, I have learned some things that I am confident are true.

A cornerstone truth about repentance is that the act of repenting is part of a process and that repentance is fruit of what must come before it.  One thing that absolutely must come before repentance is, as Paul says it, godly grief, or as the NIV translates him, godly sorrow.

One reason I see no reason for hope for the CGGC at this moment is that I see no evidence of grief on any mountaintop that is visible to me.  I see contentment there tinged, perhaps, with mild concern about the future if our fortunes don't change.

Trust me.  Without repentance,  our fortunes will not change.

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A serious problem for us now is that (mostly) men gifted to be shepherds dominate us.  Shepherds resist repentance because they comfort the grieving.   Prophets, on the other hand, pour gasoline on the fire that is godly grief.

If, someday, by an act of accepting the work of the Holy Spirit, we would give in to the godly grief He would create, we could repent.

Then shepherds could have one of the roles designed for them by the ruler of the Kingdom.   They could channel the godly grief in its great variety of styles so that it could lead to a repentance that leads to salvation.

To do that, though, our shepherd mountaintoppers are going to have to step aside. They are going to have to allow the Spirit to lead us, as He did in our movement days.

In the history of God's people, though, when shepherds achieve dominance, they very rarely step aside.

They are normally either crushed or allowed to see their fiefdoms dwindle to nothing, as appears to be the case in our current decline, or they are gone around through the empowerment of a new movement, as is, really, how the Church of God came to be in the first place.

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We all must repent but the shepherd mountaintoppers really must repent. And, step aside in favor of the Holy Spirit.