1) Listen to Podcast
2)GG Questions 10/28/2018
EHS: Enlarge your Soul through Grief and Loss
Matthew 26:36-44
1. Moments of Loss: Recall your childhood, time as a young adult, and more recent years. What losses did you experience in each of these time periods? How did you respond to them then, and how do they still affect you now?
2. Jesus Suffered First: Did Jesus experience loss (John 7:5) and temptation (Heb. 4:14-16) like you and me? When? One of Jesus’ most excruciating moments was in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37-38; Luke 22:44). Imagine yourself in that garden. What makes that evening so traumatic? How did Jesus respond to His deep grief (Mark 14:35-36)? Where can you apply this balance of submission and theology in your life?
3. Go East, Young Man: Peter Scazzero writes that “our culture routinely interprets losses as alien invasions that interrupt our ‘normal’ lives.” Which of the following defense mechanisms (described on pg. 124) have you used to protect yourself from this painful interruption: denial, minimizing, blaming, rationalizing, distracting, or medicating?
4. Redemptive Moments: God intends our losses to be redemptive moments, but Scazzero warns that ‘we must have the courage to participate fully in the process.’ Biblical grieving, according to him, includes fives aspects: (1) paying attention, (2) waiting in the in-between, (3) embracing the gift of limits, (4) climbing the ladder of humility, and (5) letting the old birth the new. Which of these aspects have you experienced? Which do you sense God is drawing you into?
