As we come of this covid era of working from home and isolation from others we seeing world wide trauma like we have never seen before.

I'm looking forward to serving as a facilitator with Grief share at New Hope Church in Minnesota. I felt this calling after my wife and I lost our precious 10 year-old daughter, Maria, when she passed when the opioid pain medication failed to metabolize in her system following her successful surgery.

We were anticipating celebrating her recovery in the summer of 2007, but the moment the Chaplain came out and said, "They did all they could but were unable to save her" our emotions plummeted into the deepest of despair.

Although we felt like giving up, we felt the loving hands of our Lord gently urging us to return to our New Hope Church one step at a time. I won't lie by saying it didn't hurt because it did hurt.It hurt for many months and at times we thought we would never recover from this pain. But we kept putting one foot in front of the other and kept right on going to church.

Worship, of course, took on a whole new meaning when we couldn't sing the joy filled happy praise songs, but we could sing the mournful songs with flowing tears.

God never abandoned my wife and I and neither did he abandon our son. We were hurting, but we knew that God was walking with us every step of the way on this journey. There were, of course, people we once knew who couldn't go on this journey with us, but there were new friends who had been where we were only a few years before who became our prayer partners on this journey.

The world is suffering from global PTSD caused by the isolation imposed on them by the global governments. I learned of a person with a cognitive disability who died because of the isolation had cut him off from his former friendships. When I look at the numbers, I see people who died by suicide and also by opioids. Each death causes pain in the survivors of these individuals. So many of us want to bury our grief in hopes it would never rear it's ugly head. This never works and often resurfaces with each additional unforseen death. Like the illustration of the Onion, we must peel each layer of loss while working through the emotions of each loss. In the case of grieving children, there is evidence to suggest that children who do not grieve developed long standing cognitive problems in school along with systhemic problems leading to diabetes, depression and a host of other conditions.

There is some evidence to suggest that unresolved grief will lead to early death.

I'm excited about the grief share group starting next week at New Hope Church. To help people recover from their pain through the weekly workbook and video lessons energizes me. I remember the verse from the bible which essentially indicates the need is great, but the laborers are few and it is a reminder that whatever your spiritual gifts are are obligated to us them in some capacity. Instead of taking the easy way out by playing mind numbing games that deadens the soul, it is better to seek the Lord's guidance and get involved in a ministry such as, for example, grief share.

If you are someone who is grieving the loss of a spouse, a parent, a nephew or niece, or a grandparent, I encourage you to try grief share. God wants to heal us from our pain and the best way of doing that is to place one foot in front of the other and attend the same church you attended when your loved one was alive. The other thing you can do is sign up for grief share.