Stage 7 of the Grief Journey - Hope

In the final stage, you will enter the Neighbourhood of New Beginnings.

Here you will have new energy, make new plans, have new hopes, and want to be with others again. You may never forget what has happened, but you will not feel the pain as intensely as before. The prophet Jeremiah describes the dynamic tension of your new reality. I encourage you to read this passage many times and meditate and reflect on it.

“. . . my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.  Lamentations 3:17b-26
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If you have time, read all of Lamentations. It is a dark book. But just like a jeweller displaces a diamond against a black background so that we can see the fullness of its sparkling beauty, this passage pours out hope as it is contrasted with the lamentations of the prophet. Be encouraged.  In the midst of a soul bereft of peace, a mind that has forgotten happiness and the loss of endurance the never-ending steadfast love and mercies of the LORD bring hope.

​Your journey is ending.