The NIV 365 Day Devotional

The Canyon of Grief

On my way to the Grand Canyon for the first time, I asked if any bridges crossed it as with other canyons of the world. Someone answered, “You haven’t seen the Grand Canyon!” Indeed, she was right. The massive chasm is ten miles across, over a mile deep and more than two hundred miles long. The only way to traverse it is down the trail, through the bottom, across the raging Colorado River and up the other side, a journey of several days.

No one has ever built a bridge across it — or wanted to. Walking across a bridge might get us to the other side quicker, but we would miss the point of the Grand Canyon. We shouldn’t run across it. Everyone needs to stand there, see his own finiteness and realize there is only one way to the other side: through its depths.

Likewise, it is fruitless to build bridges over gaps that can be traversed only within the depth of human emotions. Grief is one of those canyons of feeling we need to go through. We need to allow ourselves to grieve, to weep, to feel sad over our losses, whether caused by someone else or by our own actions.

Adult children are often frightened of releasing emotions, fearing that once they begin to cry they may not be able to stop. They fear expressing anger because they might fly into an uncontrollable rage. The truth is that human emotions — laughter, exhilaration, sadness, grief, despair — will remain dysfunctional, like atrophied limbs, unless they are exercised.

When grief joins your repertoire of experiences, it changes you. You don’t emerge as the same person you were before.

Prayer:

Lord, help me not to be afraid of my feelings. Go with me as I learn to release emotions.

Taken from the NIV Recovery Devotional Bible.