How God's Love Changes Us: Part 3 - Overcoming Grief, Achieving ReconciliationSampel

The Father Realm always calls us to live in the great paradoxical tension between love and heartache, glory and pain. Another example of this joy- and- pain paradox is found in Acts 7:55. A deacon named Stephen is about to be stoned to death by the Sanhedrin and “he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God” (niv).

In the midst of Steven’s most gruesome death, the glory/joy of God was upon him. Steven had the courage to enter death and therefore experienced resurrection. Tragedy and joy are conjoined. The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8:17 that “we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (niv).

This idea of turning suffering into glory is the essence of the good news of the gospel, yet the father and sons could not share in the glory of restored relationship without being willing to suffer heartache and grief. Grief and glory are always bound together in a peculiar dance: where one shows up, the other will always be near. 

Have you allowed yourself to weep to the point of death? If not, what is your resistance to feeling your grief?