EP 8 : HEALING FROM GRIEF AND GROWING IN COMPASSION
Christine chats with Crickett Berlin, who shares helpful tips on dealing with our own grief and ways to offer compassion to others who are hurting. They explore the true meaning of Jesus’ paradoxical statement, “Blessed are those who mourn,” and why community is crucial to healing. They also discuss the struggle to believe in the goodness of God in the presence of suffering and how God answers our “why” questions in a surprising way.
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Our Guest
Crickett Berlin
Crickett is a native Austinite, wife, and mother with a serious obsession with traveling the world. After working as a registered nurse for many years in an intensive care unit and with hospice, she discovered a passion and a gift for walking with those near end of life or experiencing bereavement. Crickett has received redemption and restoration through her own messy life circumstances and desires for all to discover Jesus’ promise of forgiveness and healing.
Crickett currently serves as a mentor and campus coordinator for Women of Care and leads GriefShare support groups in her local church.
NOTE: Featuring a guest, resource, or organization on The Holy Shift does not necessarily constitute a blanket endorsement of their entire body of work.
We’ve highlighted some key points from this episode below. Feel free to share these on your blogs/feeds with proper attribution to the writer/speaker/podcast. Or stay tuned—we will be posting several of these verses and quotes, along with clips from this episode, on our IG page and you can save/share from there.
Scripture
Matthew 5:4: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Revelation 21:4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Revelation 7:17: For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Exodus 34:6: And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4:Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Romans 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Job 2:11-13 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
Job 38 (read the whole chapter):
Ecclesiastes 3:1-4: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
Quotes
“It’s not unholy to grieve.” Crickett Berlin
“We have this erroneous misconception that healing is the absence of pain.” Crickett Berlin
“He left his throne to come wash sinners’ feet and he’s going to leave his throne to come and wipe away our tears.” Christine Chandler Prater
“Jesus is about restoration.” Crickett Berlin
“All death will be treated redemptively someday because of Jesus’s good news.” Christine Chandler Prater
“God would rather you struggle with him than walk away from him.” Crickett Berlin
“God is big enough for the anger, he’s big enough for the why, he’s big enough for your pain. His jar is big enough and great enough to collect all your tears. He does not run out and he does not run away from you.” Crickett Berlin
God answers our “why” questions with “who”. Christine Chandler Prater
“Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do is be present.” Crickett Berlin
Resources
SPECIAL THANKS TO Show Notes Creator: Laurie O’Brien | Podcast Editor: Tammy Munson
We would love to hear from you! Have you ever struggled with grief or compassion? What lessons did you learn from your experience that you would like to share with our community?
