What about you? We’ve explored how we can journey with others helping them to entrust themselves to God’s larger purposes, good plans, and eternal perspective. But what about you?

Whether you are reflecting on your past suffering or experiencing current grief, here are a few suggestions and questions. I’ve designed them to help you to move from despair to hope, from darkness to light—seeing life with spiritual eyes instead of eyeballs only.

Don’t try to address every suggestion. Pick a couple that connect with you.

My Weaving Journey

How could you look at your suffering not with rose-colored glasses, but with faith eyes, with Cross-eyes, with 20/20 spiritual vision?

What might God be up to in your suffering?

God’s story doesn’t obliterate your painful story, but it gives it meaning. What meaning could you find as you weave God’s story into yours?

C. S. Lewis famously noted that, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts to us in our pain. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” What is God shouting to you in your pain?

How could you apply Genesis 50:19-20 to your life? “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

How could God be weaving good out of the evil you are experiencing?

Life hurts. Wounds penetrate. Without grace narratives, hopelessness and bitterness flourish. With a grace narrative, how could hope and forgiveness flow and your grace perspective grow?

“In what ways do you think the world, the flesh, and the devil are trying to creep into your thinking (1 John 4:1-6; Galatians 5:13-21; Ephesians 2:1-3; 6:10-18)?”

“What passages have you found helpful in gaining a new perspective on your suffering?”

“How could you relate Paul’s perspective on his suffering in Romans 8:17-28 to your life? How could taking on his perspective alter your perspective?”

“What dead things do you anticipate Christ resurrecting? What will your resurrected life look like it?”

How do you help others to trust God’s Person, larger purposes, good plans, and eternal perspective? There are many effective ways to journey with people toward seeing life with spiritual eyes. We’ll focus again on trialogues: three-way conversations between us, our friend, and the ultimate Spiritual Friend: Christ.

Sample Weaving Trialogues

Consider some sample biblical trialogues to assist people to overcome doubt and despair by looking at life with faith eyes.

“In what ways do you think the world, the flesh, and the devil are trying to creep into your thinking (1 John 4:1-6; Galatians 5:13-21; Ephesians 2:1-3; 6:10-18)?”

“What passages have you found helpful in gaining a new perspective on your suffering?”

“When else have you experienced suffering like this? What did you learn about God in that situation? What would you repeat and what would you change?”

“How could you relate Paul’s perspective on his suffering in Romans 8:17-28 to your life? How could taking on his perspective alter your perspective?”

“God promises that all things work together for good for His children (Romans 8:28). What good purposes has God already provided to you or in you through these events?”

“What might God be wanting to accomplish in your life through your circumstances?”

“God is all-powerful, holy, and in control of everything. What impact do these characteristics of God have on you as you face this?”

“What applications can you make from Joseph’s conviction that though people intend things for our harm, God weaves them together for our good?”

“How could you emulate Joseph and forgive those who intended you harm? What would that forgiveness look like?”

“Let’s explore passages on forgiveness such as Matthew 18:21-35; 2 Corinthians 2:3-11; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:8-17.”

“Let’s explore passages on reconciliation and restitution such as Matthew 18:15-20; 2 Corinthians 6:11-13; 2 Corinthians 7:8-13.”

“What dead things do you anticipate Christ resurrecting? What will your resurrected life look like it?”

And What About You?

I invite you back tomorrow as we’ll explore how you and I can entrust ourselves to God.

God’s Healing for Life’s Losses:
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting

What about you? We’ve explored how we can journey with others helping them to long deeply for heaven while living passionately on earth. But what about you?

Whether you are reflecting on your past suffering or experiencing current grief, here are a few suggestions and questions. I’ve designed them to help you to move from deadening to groaning—staying alive to life even when it crushes you to death.

Don’t try to address every suggestion. Pick a couple that connect with you.

My Wailing to God Journey

1. When are you most tempted to deaden the pain of life? How do you defeat this temptation so you’re able to groan to God?

2. Groaning exposes us for the needy people we are. How hard is it for you to admit your neediness—to yourself, to others, to God?

3. God made you a longing, thirsting, hungering, desiring being. What are you longing, thirsting, hungering for and desiring?

4. How do you stay alive to life when it crushes you to death?

5. Reread and meditate upon Philippians 1:23-25. What would it look like in your grieving to apply this passage to your life? “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of your for your progress and joy in the faith.”

6. Wailing says, “I wanna’ go home. This world is so messed up. I ache for Paradise. However, I’m pulling weeds till the day I die!” Write your personal “wailing psalm.”

7. Satan wants life to kill your dreams. What dreams do you want God to resurrect?

8. God calls us to keep longing for Paradise while still pulling weeds even while we live East of Eden. What weeds is God calling you to pull?

9. “If you were to write a thirst Psalm like Psalm 42, how would you word it?”

10. “In Romans 8:17-18, Paul did some spiritual mathematics and reasoned that his current sufferings were not worth comparing to his future glory. As you calculate your earthly suffering and your eternal glory, what conclusions do you make?”

11. “Satan wants to use your suffering to suck the life out of you. How can you connect to Christ’s resurrection power to find new life, new zeal for God? How can you not only survive, but thrive?”

Weaving

Surely we can’t stay forever in the wailing stage. How do we uncover God’s perspective on life? How do we gain the spiritual eyes, the faith eyes to see life with 20/20 spiritual vision again?

We need spiritual laser surgery. It is in the grieving stage of weaving that the Divine Soul Physicians operates on the eyes of our hearts. We visit His office tomorrow to have those cataracts removed . . .

Sample Wailing/Groaning/Longing Trialogues

Consider some sample biblical trialogues to assist people to refuse to long deeply while living passionately.

“The temptation when life beats us down is not to face life anymore. To survive, but not thrive. How are you facing this temptation?”

“What will it look like for you to keep hoping?”

“What God-designed thirst is this situation stirring up in your soul?”

“What are you longing for from God right now?”

“If you were to write a thirst Psalm like Psalm 42, how would you word it?”

“As Paul faced suffering, he groaned for heaven (Romans 8:17-25). What are you groaning for?”

“In Romans 8:17-18, Paul did some spiritual mathematics and reasoned that his current sufferings were not worth comparing to his future glory. As you calculate your earthly suffering and your eternal glory, what conclusions do you make?”

“How is your current suffering causing you to long for heaven?”

“How is this situation helping you to realize that ‘this world is not your home’?”

“What testimony of future hope might spring from your current suffering?”

“In Philippians 1:23-25, Paul says that he longs for heaven, but that he’s passionate about staying on earth in order to glorify God and benefit others. How can you apply his choice to your life?”

“Satan wants to use your suffering to suck the life out of you. How can you connect to Christ’s resurrection power to find new life, new zeal for God? How can you not only survive, but thrive?”

And You?

Tomorrow we explore how you can groan for heaven while growing here on earth.