Faith & Grief-Strange Bedfellows: Guest post from Amanda Held Opelt

This much is true: if you are human, you will know faith, and you will know grief. We all put our trust in something along the way. And we all lose something we love along the way. 

Grief is informed by faith. And faith is informed by grief. Grief challenges faith, but can very often make it stronger. Faith can soothe grief, but sometimes muddies the narrative. If your faith is in a good God, then why would he allow bad things to happen? 

One thing I learned in the wake of my own losses is that both faith and grief need to be nurtured and tended to if you are going to experience them in a way that is healthy and whole. If they aren’t given attention, they will whither or rot or fester. If they are nourished and cared for, they will grow and integrate into your life in a way that illuminates and adds beauty to everything. 

Both faith and grief are difficult journeys. It goes without saying that grief is a painful companion at times. Truthfully, so is faith, at least it is in my experience. My faith in God has at times disappointed me and confused me. It has required me to stretch and expand my imagination when it comes to goodness and blessing. It has forced me to look beyond myself and my own expectations. It propelled me into a story that wasn’t entirely my own, that I couldn’t control. 

Both faith and grief have become treasured aspects of my life. I can say with a high degree of confidence, that while I am not grateful for the losses, I am grateful for the labor of grief (and faith) and what it has birthed in my life.

From Amanda's Instagram, included with her permission