Sorrowing for Soul Care
Instead of giving you more words on the topics of in the “Psalms for the Soul,” series, I want to give you tools to practice what you are learning. To that end, I will be sharing more links/exercises than original thoughts in this space for the next few weeks. My prayer is that these will help you as you apply what you know and do the hard (and often messy) work of soul care.
· Grief Journaling. One of my trusted go-to’s when I have loss to process is journaling. If you’ve never done it before, I encourage you to give it a try, even if you are not much of a writer. What I’ve found is that getting my emotions out on a page (literally) gives me space for expression and exploration. Carve out some time (maybe 30 minutes), find a quiet and private place and prayerfully respond to this prompt: List the losses you are grieving. Write a letter to your loving Heavenly Father expressing your thoughts, feelings, questions and struggles. Be honest, resist the urge to self-edit.
· Music. A powerful way to engage emotion is music. Here are some songs which have helped me in sorrowing, maybe one will help you too:
o The Wound is Where the Light Shines Through (bonus blog post from Jon Foreman)
o Held
o Even If
· Processing loss. Rob Reimer has written extensively on Soul Care (again I recommend his tremendous book on the topic). He posted this video discussing pandemic loss and processing our loss in 2021. Even if you don’t go through this exact same process, his thoughts maybe be helpful.
· Talk it out. As personal as sorrowing can be, often it is in sharing your loss with others that you find healing. I often say to myself as a reminder, “Joy shared is multiplied, sorrow shared is divided.” Sharing your loss with others may be as informal as having a conversation with a trusted brother or sister in Christ. Conversely, it might be as formal as seeing a professional counselor. Often it is in sharing, not just in one context with one person but, in various different ways that you will find your sorrow divided and healing begun.
Again, it is my hope that one or more of these are helpful tools to you as you seek to enter into the work of sorrowing.