Austin's Blog

Often times in intense times of grief, we can begin to question everything we thought was real. We can even begin doubting not only God’s goodness and love but His very existence. But, we must never deny in the dark what we’ve learned in the light. Grief actually affirms the enduring reality of God’s existence.

1. Grief affirms death is unnatural and evil. But, death is natural and amoral if God does not exist. We all know in our bones as we stand before the caskets of those we love that this ought not to be! Why do we have such a moral outrage before the grave if this is just the way of things?
2. Grief affirms the reality that love is ultimate and real. Love is more than just the banging around of atoms and swishing around of chemicals in our brains. Do we really love others or is this just some material outworking of our genes? We know love is real and meant to last. It does, even beyond the grave.
3. Grief affirms the goodness of creation. Objective goodness only exists if God is real. Greg Welty writes, “Grief affirms the goodness of what God has given and then taken away. We are not Gnostics; we do not believe creation is inherently evil. We believe that everything God has created is good, and when that is taken away from us—marriage, children, friends, health—we suffer a loss. Not a phantom loss, a fake loss, but a real loss. It might be ultimately outweighed by that of which we have yet no inkling (2 Cor. 4:7–12, 16–18), but nevertheless it is a loss. To think otherwise is to think that the things we love, the people we love, the gifts of God we receive, are of no worth. And we dare not think that. To lament and grieve is not to abandon faith but to express one’s faith in the value of God’s great gifts and in the goodness of the giver.”
4. Grief affirms the limits of natural explanations. Some things are beyond our ability to rationally explain. At the moment of death, we stand upon the precipice of a high and holy moment that only can be explained by something or Someone other-worldly. Grief affirms this because it awakens in us a sense of mystery that defies mere biology or psychology.
5. Grief affirms the eternal. Grief affirms the eternal because our longing for the one we’ve lost refuses to accept that love can simply end. The very pain of separation testifies that our hearts were made for something lasting, for relationships that transcend time and death. Believers often express feeling, sensing, or experiencing a sense of God’s presence, His peace, or His profound worth during their deepest trials.
6. Grief affirms the objective worth of a person. We mourn not just what someone did, but who they were. We mourn their intrinsic, irreplaceable value. Our sorrow declares that each human life carries a dignity that no circumstance, achievement, or loss can diminish. You can’t get over a person like you can get over losing a dream job or something of that nature. Why? They matter. Profoundly. Eternally.
7. Grief affirms justice as an enduring, real part of the universe. Especially when evil and injustice have happened, we experience a real sense of profound moral indignation. There really is right and wrong in this world. Grief affirms justice as real because when death or suffering feels wrong, our hearts cry out for a world made right. That instinct for fairness and restoration points to a moral order beyond ourselves, one that demands ultimate justice and redemption. Our cry is a moral protest pointing to a transcendent standard of right and wrong, and a Judge who will one day set things right.
8. Grief affirms the longing for redemption. We long for not just consolation but compensation. We long that everything will not just end but be made right, be restored, and be resurrected. In our deepest sorrow, we ache not only for what was lost, but for the day when every wrong will be made right and every tear redeemed.
9. Grief affirms the reality of the soul. We weep and mourn within our very souls. It is more than mere emotion. In our mourning, we sense that what has been wounded is not just our minds or bodies, but something eternal within us.
10. Grief affirms meaning and purpose. When we grieve, we don’t just mourn loss. We mourn lost meaning: the unrealized future and the purpose that feels cut short. Our grief assumes that life should have meaning, that stories should go somewhere, and that someone dying young really does feel like a missing out on something that was meant to be. But in a purely material universe, there is no ultimate purpose to begin with, only blind processes. Grief exposes that we intuitively believe life matters, that our stories matter, and that there is a purposeful Author behind them.