…to learn to grieve.
Peter Scazzero explains the sad result of ignoring our pain:
Year after year we deny and avoid the difficulties and losses of life, the rejections and frustrations. People in our churches minimize their failures and disappointments. The result is that for many today, at least in prosperous North America, there is a widespread inability to face pain. This has led to an overall feeling of superficiality and a lack of profound compassion.
Our culture trivializes tragedy and loss. Every night on the news we are given pictures of crimes, wars, famines, murders, and natural disasters. They are analyzed and reported, but there is no lamenting.
Our national capacity to grieve is almost lost. We are too busy with trying to keep everything as it is and getting our own way. When a loss enters our life, we become angry at God and treat it as an alien invasion from outer space. Is it any wonder that there exists so much depression in our culture?
(From The Emotionally Healthy Church
, by Peter Scazzero, p.161)
