Grief That Has Nowhere To Go

Grief looks for a place to be told. When a church community moves quickly to resurrection language, sorrow can be left without an address — and it settles instead in the body, in sleep, in short tempers.

Lament is the biblical name for grief with an address. A third of the Psalms make room for it. In our grief group we borrow that structure: say what is true, say it to God, and let others hear it without hurrying you.

Hope is not the opposite of sorrow. It is what lets sorrow be spoken out loud.