On this side of the “not yet” of Christ’s Kingdom coming, all humans experience beauty and loss— sometimes both at the same time, sometimes shared, and sometimes all alone. What are some spiritual practices that can help us navigate the waters of beauty and loss? Maybe you already have practices in your life that help you give space to beauty and loss. But maybe you don’t even know how to process…
Practice of Remembering
Primarily, we need practices of remembering— remembering that no matter what we are experiencing, God is good and his story is good. We have the opportunity to trust God and his good story or to trust ourselves and whatever story we can devise. In the beginning and for all times, the story of God is good. And we are forever and always invited into his good story. Will we trust him?
What practices (activities) remind you of God’s goodness? Biblically, the practice of Sabbath keeping was meant to help God’s children remember. Part of the weekly day of rest was always meant to have a remembering component. We are to reflect on God’s goodness in our salvation from slavery and the gift of weekly rest. You could consider a weekly time to light a candle and go around the table with friends and/or family and remember instances of God’s goodness that week.
Practice of Mourning
We may not think that intentionally mourning will help us to trust God’s good story, but giving voice to the things, people, experiences, and ways of life that we have lost, is essential to our emotional health. Think of the collection of communal songs we have come to know and love—the Psalms. Many of them are songs of lament.
We can “borrow” the prayers and songs of David and others as we give voice to our own losses. That may mean flipping the pages of the Psalms, locating one that resonates with you and then inserting your experience in the words as you identify with the emotions of the psalm.
As you set aside time to reflect on your life, give voice to loss, whether it’s a daily or a weekly practice. You could include it in the time around a candle to remember God’s goodness.
Practice of Praise
In addition to Psalms of lament, we read Psalms of praise- of naming and calling out goodness and beauty. We, too, need to spend time praising God. One might assume that the first practice of remembering would naturally lead to praising, but let’s not assume. Because, to be honest, the practice of remembering leads to both lament and praise. Just like we live in the tension of beauty and loss, our remembering will lead us to see God’s goodness but also to notice the pain we experienced along the way. Both of these responses are good but they require different responses. Loss requires mourning and goodness requires praise. Again, you can “borrow” from the songs of David or another poet, or you can write your own one-line praise. Praise can be for a big thing or for a little thing. For example,
“Dear God, I praise you for the hot cup of coffee this morning. It lifted my morning blues and helped me have hope for the day.”
“Dear God, I praise and thank you that my house is still standing and that we didn’t sustain any major damage from the hurricane.”
How can you establish a practice of personal praise?