And Ben — thanks for sharing your journey of joy and loss. “Blessed Be Your Name” has become our congregational anthem this year. I’ve had to think carefully through the chorus — “you give and take away” (which comes from Job — but means different things to different people!) — but I think it rings true as understood through the story of Jesus Christ.

“Some survivors try to think their way through grief. That doesn’t work. Grief is a releasing process, a discovery process, a healing process. We cannot release or discover or heal by the use of our minds alone. The brain must follow the heart at a respectful distance. It is our hearts that ache when a loved one dies. It is our emotions that are most drastically affected. Certainly the mind suffers, the mind recalls, the mind may plot and plan and wish, but it is the heart that will blaze the trail through the thicket of grief.” –from A TIME TO GRIEVE: Meditations for Healing After the Death of a Loved One by Carol Staudacher

“Some survivors try to think their way through grief. That doesn’t work. Grief is a releasing process, a discovery process, a healing process. We cannot release or discover or heal by the use of our minds alone. The brain must follow the heart at a respectful distance. It is our hearts that ache when a loved one dies. It is our emotions that are most drastically affected. Certainly the mind suffers, the mind recalls, the mind may plot and plan and wish, but it is the heart that will blaze the trail through the thicket of grief.” –from A TIME TO GRIEVE: Meditations for Healing After the Death of a Loved One by Carol Staudacher

I wept for joy when we got to “meet her” at our first ultrasound. Then I wept in bitter pain as I watched my wife weep over the loss. I felt so helpless in trying to comfort Trisha.

I am learning a lot about life through this process of bearing kids. I have held my wife’s hand through the valley of infertility and screamed praises on the mountain top of holding my beautiful kids for the first time. I now know that the size of the coffin has no bearing on the size of the grief. I now understand that having great faith in God and trusting His provision doesn’t keep you from being crushed by the pain of loss.

Mike, my heart joins you as you mourn the loss of your beautiful baby girl. I’ll be hanging with you this weekend at Stream. You’ll know it’s me because I’ll be weeping as we sing “Blessed Be Your Name”. –bw

I didn’t get to say hi or hug your neck but I was one of the many worked into a frenzy Friday night. It was a blessing to hear God’s call from you to be an every day missionary. Thanks for sharing your life.

I am humbled and continually blessed by the sharing of your thoughts and life through this BLOG and especially being a part of the faith community at Highland. It is helping me to better tell the story of God’s workings around and in my life.