Preface
1 When Hope Is Hard
Stage One: We Are in a State of Shock
2. To Stand at a Distance
3. When You Don’t Feel ‘Wonderfully Made’: Shock and Yourself
4. If You Want to Talk: Shock and Others
5. In Bodies So Breakable: Shock and Creation
6. Draw Near, O Love: Shock and God
Stage Two: We Express Emotion
7. Sighs Too Deep for Words
8. Sometimes We Need Yells: Emotions and Yourself
9. Wounded Healers All: Emotions and Others
10. Dialogues with the World Around Us: Emotions and Creation
11. Being Honest with God: Emotions and God
Stage Three: We Feel Depressed and Lonely
12. A Necessary Slowing Down
13. Sometimes, a Stranger: Depression and Yourself
14. An Invisible Blanket: Depression and Others
15. When the Full Moon Is Hidden: Depression and Creation
16. Take My Hand, Precious Lord: Depression and God
Stage Four: We May Experience Physical Symptoms of Distress
17. I Am Weary with My Crying
18. I Just Don’t Feel Like Myself: Your Body and Yourself
19. He Looks Up and Says ‘Thanks’: Your Body and Others
20. To Rest in the Grace of the World: Your Body and Creation
21. Touched by God’s Own Presence: Your Body and God
Stage Five: We May Become Panicky
22. Am I Losing My Mind?
23. When We Feel Powerless: Panic and Yourself
24. The Presence of One Who Shares: Panic and Others
25. The Promise of the Rainbow: Panic and Creation
26. A Healing Voice: Panic and God
Stage Six: We Feel a Sense of Guilt about the Loss
27. Create in Me a Clean Heart
28. We CanÂt Avoid It: Guilt and Yourself
29. We Do Have Options: Guilt and Others
30. To Blame or to Accept: Guilt and Creation
31. Steadfast Love and Mercy: Guilt and God
Stage Seven: We Are Filled with Anger and Resentment
32. A Gap µ An Emptiness
33. Wrestling Our Resentments: Anger and Yourself
34. We Don’t Need a Scapegoat: Anger and Others
35. The Ability to Say Goodbye: Anger and Creation
36. Disappointed?: Anger and God
Stage Eight: We Resist Returning
37. To Remember, To Forget
38. Who Am I?: Returning and Yourself
39. Go Home to Your Friends: Returning and Others
40. For the Winter Is Now Past: Returning and Creation
41. An End to Childish Ways: Returning and God
Stage Nine: Gradually Hope Comes Through
42. Something Quite Unexpected
43. The Blue Water Ahead: Hope and Yourself
44. Friendships—New and Renewed: Hope and Others
45. All Nature Sings: Hope and Creation
46. Simple Things: Hope and God
Stage Ten: We Struggle to Affirm Reality
47. Not as Those Who Have No Hope
48. A New Home: Reality and Yourself
49. People Who Need People: Reality and Others
50. A Renewed World: Reality and Creation
51. The Day the Lord Has Made: Reality and God
52. Grief and Hope
Brent D. Christianson is a retired pastor (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) who served parishes in Wisconsin and Minnesota for ten years and in campus ministry for twenty-five years. His poetry has been published in books and journals, and he has written studies for the ELCA. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in Northfield, Minnesota. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.
"In The Good Grief Devotional: 52 Weeks toward Hope, Christianson has crafted a delightful companion to Granger Westberg's seminal Good Grief. Christianson writes that his wish for this book it to brings its readers hope. And it does. Through a healing recipe of Scripture, poetry, wisdom, and prayer, Christianson brings an offering that I would have been delighted to give to each grieving family in my thirty-plus years as a parish pastor. I can offer no higher praise than that." --Rick Hoyme, retired ELCA bishop and pastor"For years I had a supply of Granger Westberg's classic Good Grief in my pastoral office. I gave one to people who were going through rough waters. Brent D. Christianson's devotional book will be even more helpful for those who have been struck by divorce, death, or another form of loss. Through poetry, lyrical prose, and story, the book speaks openly about the pain of grief and points the reader in the direction of comfort and grace. If read slowly and savored, the fifty-two short chapters promise to bring healing and even joy." --Bill White, ELCA pastor, Madison, Wisconsin"Grief work is indeed good and holy, as Christianson notes. He is a compassionate, hopeful companion for those in the midst of that work. The poems, lyrics, stories, and prayers he has gathered will provide comfort and encouragement in the first year of grief and beyond." --Carla Dahl, Luther Seminary"Brent D. Christianson has written a book of devotions that is an articulate, thoughtful, and helpful response to Granger Westberg's now classic book on the ten stages of grief, Good Grief. Drawing from his personal experience of grief and loss, Holy Scripture, and a deep well of verse written both by him and others more widely read or sung, Christianson invites us to reflect on and share our own experience of grief and loss.Christianson's prose is concise and clear. He uses words and imagery that draw us in and help us clarify our own thoughts and feelings about loss and grief. Perhaps what I appreciate most is his faithful dialogue with the biblical texts and the short prayers that close each devotional chapter with a light touch to help heal the grieving heart.As a chaplain and director of spiritual care at a retirement community, I am moved to invite him to share this book and his experience with our residents, family, and staff." --Kristine Braaten-Lee, chaplain, Northfield Retirement Community
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