Spiritual Grief

Where is Jesus when we need him most? An influential pastor shares how despair can lead us to discover true hope and a deeper relationship with God, helping us emerge stronger and more joyful from times of crisis. None of us live free of difficulties or hardships. But how can we learn to live richly in the midst of them? And even grow spiritually because of them? The answer is found in the hopeful humanity of Jesus.

When Colin Campbell’s two teenage children were killed by a drunk driver, Campbell was thrown headlong into a grief so deep he felt he might lose his mind. He found much of the common wisdom about coping with loss—including the ideas that grieving is a private and mysterious process and that the pain is so great that “there are no words”—to be unhelpful. Drawing on what he learned from his own journey, Campbell offers an alternative path for processing pain that is active and vocal and truly honors loved ones lost.

In a period of almost unbearable uncertainty and fear, many of us have wondered, “Does God see us? Can he help us through this nerve-racking time?” Beloved Bible teacher Dr. David Jeremiah shares through psalms that God is always walking beside us. Now is the time to Shelter in God.

In this eloquent account of her current struggle with physical pain, Joni Eareckson Tada offers her perspective on divine healing, God’s purposes, and what it means to live with joy. Over four decades ago, a diving accident left Joni a quadriplegic. Today, she faces a new battle: unrelenting pain. The ongoing urgency of this season in her life has caused Joni to return to foundational questions about suffering and God’s will.

What do you do when you are suddenly navigating a life you didn't sign up for? You never saw this pain coming, and you're facing a future you'd pass up if you could. Lisa Appelo understands deeply. She has experienced the raw emotions and uncertainty that come when everything falls apart. Lisa went to bed married and woke up a widow and single mom to seven children. She wrestled with impossible questions about her future—and then found life-changing answers that gave her the strength to move forward with true joy.

Over twenty years later, Dee was still in love with her charming Southern gentleman when he passed away suddenly in 2007. Determined to carry on Johnnie’s work, Dee earned her mortuary science degree, only to find herself no longer needed in the family business. So Dee crossed the racial divide in the most segregated industry in America and joined the staff of an African-American funeral home as a single white woman. In The Undertaker’s Wife, Oliver draws from her experience to provide candid advice on dying well and surviving the loss of those who have gone before.

Tens of thousands of women and families every year lose a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death. The statistics are sobering - between 10 percent and 20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, 1 percent in stillbirth, and nearly 23,000 babies die before their first birthday - but statistics alone miss the depth of the hurt. Each loss is personal and devastating.

Is there a way to walk into the final chapters of life with peace and confidence, and with support and wisdom? We all are living an earthly story with a beginning, middle, and end. While aspects of our story's closing hold mystery, we do not have to feel lost as we move toward it. We instead can lean on the support and wisdom of others who know the path ahead. In Anticipating Heaven, Dr. Pyle offers that same practical advice and spiritual comfort to you and your loved ones as you navigate a serious illness.

As a troubled teenager, Tamara Laroux just wants the pain to go away. Crying out to God for forgiveness, she makes the heart-wrenching decision to end her life. As she plummets from her body to a place of vast darkness, torment, and agony, Tamara instantly realizes the finality of her rash decision and begs God to save her.

Dallas Willard spent his life making eternal living concrete for his friends. After his unexpected passing in 2013, the kaleidoscope of memories and the diversity of the lives he had touched could not be confined to one or even two memorial services but three. It is this wide breadth of impact that inspired friends, family, colleagues, students, and leaders of the church to gather their reflections on this celebrated yet humble theologian and philosopher.

When our circumstances unravel, how do we hold on to truth, to hope, to who we’re meant to be? After Carole Holiday experienced a series of heartbreaking losses, she realized something else had slipped away: her identity. Grief had stolen her sense of self, leaving her feeling unmoored and empty. But it was not the end of her story. Her debut book, I Don’t Know Who I Am Anymore,is for the wanderers, the waylaid, the wavering. The ones who feel weak and worthless. The ones who weep.

Dr. Chauncey Crandall knows his patients well. When they are dying, he sits at the bedside with them and holds their hands. He prays with them. Sometimes he can feel what they feel and see what they see. At other times his patients have near-death experiences and "come back" with astonishing descriptions of the afterlife.

Ed and Lisa Young, pastors of Fellowship Church, know the kind of grief that no one should have to suffer—the death of a child. With deep vulnerability, they tell the story of their family's journey through sorrow and anger to hope and healing after the tragic and sudden loss of their daughter. In A Path Through Pain, the Youngs will offer you a language and a voice to speak about your pain and a way to see that you don't walk this path alone. They'll walk you through concrete ways that daily acts of faith can restore your hope in the faithfulness and power of Jesus Christ.

Renew your appreciation for the breathtaking beauty that surrounds us in life's simplest details. Encouraging you to reflect even deeper on the concepts explored in her bestselling book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp offers sixty wisdom-soaked devotions, complete with scriptures, prayers, and reflection questions.

From your heart’s deepest cry to life’s joyful praises, nothing is off limits to Jesus.Knowing Jesus on a deeper, more personal level means sharing all aspects of your life with Him…every day. In Dear Jesus, Sarah Young exemplifies what it means to do this - to dialogue with the Savior. She begins each of the 120 devotionals by sharing intimate struggles and longings that weigh on the heart - being preoccupied with problems; being dissatisfied with oneself, and other spiritual issues.

Through the dramatic events of 2020 and the ensuing uncertainty and anxiety ever since, people’s lives and illusions of security have been turned upside down. Whenever our plans, hopes, and dreams are put on hold—or worse, lost forever—we feel discouraged, lost, and isolated, and desperately praying, “God, where are You?” Matthew West’s newest book, The God Who Stays, is an engaging and thoughtful exploration, balanced with his trademark wit and humor, that helps us reconnect to the biblical truth of a personal Savior who never leaves our side.

In this unabridged audio download, Letters from the Land of Cancer, award-winning writer Walter Wangerin Jr. offers his profound insights into the greatest challenge we face: confronting our own mortality. Diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in January 2006, Wangerin began writing letters to his friends and family members. Now he offers these intimate letters to all who ask questions about living and dying well.

Blending firsthand accounts of tragedy with opportunity for raw self-examination and reflection, Vleisides delves into the realm of spirituality and belief amid loss and despair. For the "spiritual but not religious", who want to pursue God outside the walls of organized religion, Used to Go to Church is an invitation to rethink faith and open up to a life centered on grace, mercy, and love.

Mattie Jackson draws on her experience of grieving the sudden death of her young husband to extend to you a safe and guided place to journey from devastating loss toward comfort and healing. Whether your sorrow is recent, or you’re still feeling the ache of a loved one’s absence, or you're lamenting a difficult situation, this book is an honest companion, validation for the hard days, and a sustaining guide to help soften the psychological stages of grief.

When the oldest of Kate Braestrup's four children was 10 years old, her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident. Stunned and grieving, she decided to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a Unitarian minister. She eventually began working with the Maine Game Warden Service, which conducts the state's search-and-rescue operations when people go missing in the wilderness.