Freedom in Christ

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1




I was thinking of this today as I did my daily glance at the newspaper filled with stories of tragedies, personal financial calamities, and the collapse of our local professional baseball team. Are we really behaving like slaves when we allow ourselves to be held captive to this news?

Grief is everywhere in the world around us. A family loses a child and grief effects everyone around them, including the family. A spouse loses their job after working with an employer they thought they were going to retire at and they go through a painful grief process that last for months, years and even decades. Unresolved grief which simply means not talking about it to process all of it's complicated emotions associated with it can be dangerous to your psychological and medical state of being.

When something happens in life that results in grief none of us can turn back the hands of time. What is done is done and cannot be changed, but what all of us has the power to do is to talk about our grief with a trusted friend who is willing to walk the painful journey with you. You cannot expect to get over it in just a few short encounters because the grief process is a very complicated one where each emotion you are feeling needs to be dealt with in it's time.

One of the attorney's I initially consulted with ( the one who greatly understood my pain of losing a daughter) told me that every year on the anniversary of their daughter's death he is unable to go to work and together with his wife they take time off that day to reflect on their loss.

There are going to be some grief in life that is simply too painful to handle on your own. In those cases you should remember that we have specialist in the mental health field who are trained to assist you with processing that grief. Shortly after my loss I took took time out of my work day to see a clinical psychologist that was recommended to me who had a reputation of helping people recover from the initial stages of shock, anger, depression associated with my grief. I recognized that these psychologists are there to help us process the trauma and grief emotions so they do not get to the point where our body starts developing symptoms that could lead to greater health problems.

You are not crazy because you see a psychologist. They are there to help you much like your medical doctor treats your acute symptoms. As you process your emotions of your grief with a trusted friend or even a psychologist please remember that Christ has set us free from the bondage of slavery to these very emotions and like a Olympic athlete we must exercise our minds by reading those poetic and historical words in the bible which are evidence for us of God's deep love for his people and his desire to bring healing to each of us. Yes, Christ has set us free and the chains have been broken and we are free to leave our prison cells and experience true freedom in Christ!