It’s been just at a year since the day my mom called me to say she hadn’t been feeling well. She didn’t know what was wrong with her health, but something wasn’t right and hadn’t been for several weeks. A few short months later she was gone from this world, losing a battle to cancer and moving into her heavenly home. To date losing my mom is the most significant loss I’ve and honestly most of my family have ever walked through. It’s been harder than I ever imagined and fresh tears well up in my eyes as I type these words. 

My mom passed away on December 3, 2023 since that time, my family has walked through countless other losses. Some of them have been big and others small, but a loss all the same. Every single one of them paling in comparison to losing my mom. At the same time every single one of them has in some way brought tears to my eyes and fresh pain to my heart. These losses have included things like selling mom’s home, saying goodbye to traditions that surround holidays, watching kids and students that we love graduate from preschool all the way through high school, stepping away from ministries my family and I have served in for years, and more. 

A few weeks ago as I was saying goodbye to some of my high school community group girls that were moving away to college, tears sprang to my eyes and I deeply felt that growingly familiar sense of loss once again in a new and fresh way. I went home from church that Sunday wondering how long will these losses keep coming? How many more can we (my family and I) stand up under? Why doesn’t the pain just stop!?

Honestly I’ve not always handled these losses in a healthy way. Oftentimes I’ve chosen avoidance, busyness and distraction. I acted out in anger and apathy. I’ve wandered away from God, not allowing Him to heal and fill my hurting heart and soul. Thankfully however, I have a Savior who never ever leaves or turns His back on me. He has been right here, gently nudging me back towards Him.

In Daniel 3 we read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Rack, Shack and Benny if you grew up in the VeggieTails generation) and their interaction with King Nebuchadnezzar over their refusal to bow to a gold statue. On the face of it, it may seem that this story has nothing to do with loss, but I think it does especially when you know the backstory. These three dudes, had in fact faced much loss, they had been taken from their homes, families, friends and deported to Babylon.  A country that didn’t worship God, ate different foods and lived by rules that were foreign and strange. Now here they are faced with the potential loss of their own lives as they face being thrown into a fiery furnace. Their response to the king is found in 31:7-18 “If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” 

“Even if” faith! These young men have it figured out. Trust God no matter what comes your way, no matter how many losses, even if your own life is threatened! Paul says something similar in Philippians 3, Paul  is talking about putting your confidence in the right things and he says in verses 7-8 “But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.  More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.” Paul calls his losses “worthless and dung”! Now that is an interesting way to view losses. 

As hard as it is to admit, I have learned and grown in light of my losses. Lessons that more than likely wouldn’t have been learned without walking through loss. Unfortunately, I’m a slow learner so it takes me longer than some to catch on to what God is teaching me and I 100% admit I don’t have it all figured out but I’m trying to shift my focus back to God and what He has in store for us in the next season of life, whatever it may hold. The truth is we live a broken world which means more losses will come our way. But we also serve an amazing God who will never leave us to walk through those losses alone.

I know I am not alone in facing loss and struggling to find my through it in a God honoring way. If this is where you find yourself today, let me encourage you to call out to Jesus and allow Him to carry your burdens and lead you back to Himself, the only place where true rest and healing can occur.