Good Grief! Can Loss Be a Gift?

Change invites choice.

You can choose to view change as a pain or as a gain.
You can choose to focus your mind and heart on what causes the change or Who gets you through it.
You can choose the lie about change (you are vulnerable) or choose the truth (you can be victorious.)

And … change walks hand-in-hand with loss. How you choose to face that loss is part of change, too.

One Way to Grieve a Loss

During a time of change, you leave old circumstances and enter a new set. Take the Israelites, for example. They had left four centuries of slavery in Egypt and now perched on the edge of Canaan. God provided them with clear instructions about how to live by giving the 10 Commandments and the Law. While en route to the Promised Land, they enjoyed God’s physical presence and leading in the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud. Now He promised them their own land to build a nation!

But as 12 Israelite spies reported the upcoming challenges in the Promised Land, the people lost their vision for a simple, easy Canaan takeover. Messiness would reign. The people grieved.

How they went about their grief compounded their loss. As Israel complained and grumbled, they did not seek God’s movement. Instead, in a willful display of obstinacy, they refused to believe God’s promises – in spite of all the miraculous signs He had performed among them (Numbers 14). Soon there was talk of a mutiny and stoning.

The Israelites denied what God would do in their loss, isolating them further and delaying their victorious entry into the Promised Land.

Another Way to Grieve a Loss

Forty years later the children of Israel sat poised, once again, on the edge of the Promised Land, facing change. They were about to move from a life as nomads to a life as warriors and settlers.

Looking back, the nation might have thought they had lost 40 years. Wasted days, weeks, and months could have been spent building their new home in Canaan.

Yet as they reviewed what had transpired over the previous four decades, God reminded them, “You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart … to do you good in the end” (Deuteronomy 8:2, 16, NKJV).

During that time God had been preparing the new generation to enter into the land. What the Israelites could have seen as a loss, this time they could now choose to see as preparation. Hearts were humbled.

God can work with that.

Your Wilderness Can Become a Canaan

During different seasons of change in your life, your losses may take various forms: the passing of a loved one. A pink slip. The move away from a home. A diseased limb or organ. The death of a dream, of innocence, or of hope. Squandered time or a missed opportunity. Your losses can be major or minor … losses can be physical, mental, emotional, financial, or spiritual.

Should you grieve a loss that is inevitable during change? Of course. Yet when you suffer a loss and don’t seek what God can do in it, then your loss is compounded.

You needn’t stay in that desert.

There is a gift with loss. When you allow humility to weave its way through your loss, then God promises to work in what may seem to be a waste … to do you good in the end.

Will you receive that gain during a time of change and loss? You can. Do your part — bring your humbled heart before God. Then let Him do His part. He promises to do you good in the end.

The choice is up to you.