A Grieving Experience

Overall this book was a very good reading experience in which I was glad to see what was on C. S. Lewis’ mind when he was going through this grieving process. I find it interesting that he would make comments about God and faith in God, but yet some of His very works (even in this book) he would contradict it defending God. I had a cousin that died from cancer in 2006 and this is one of the situations God used to bring me to Him…but compared to what Lewis writes, I cannot say I grieved like he did. I maybe felt a little of what he felt. But what we see here is that when someone is hurting, weak, etc. we become so easily tempted to point fingers at God. And this is a famous Christian author were talking about… imagine someone who already is a skeptic… in situations like that is when people easily become atheist. After reading A Grief Observed, it really made me think about all those out there who really don’t believe in God because of something that has happened to them (or a loved one) because if as a Christian C. S. Lewis pointed the finger at God… then how much more someone who is a skeptic. The pain that he went through can not be much different from what many others feel in this world when there spouse dies, but what makes it worst I think is that not that he is not a Christian but that he is. Throughout the journal you can just feel his words of hurt like he has been betrayed by God and this shows that when we are closer to God is when we are most likely to feel this way because we feel that he must take care of everything in our life in a way that we don’t hurt.
When I grieved over my cousin I didn’t hate God but I did however ask why? It was weird because in a way God opened my eyes through her death… during the grieving period I would read (I never did) , but it just felt comfortable and throughout that time I read bible a lot. I didn’t get saved unstill almost a year later, but it still impacted my life greatly. I wish he kept a journal after his grieving… I wonder what that would have said?

Happpy Endings

Hmmm... happy endings? I would think that for something to be a happy ending, that first of all it must be happy... of course. Second it must be an end of something. In this story the end of that something seems to be life, “Eventually they die. This is the end of the story,” as the author put it. The problem with this is that not all the deaths in the story are happy endings, this shows that all endings are not the same “however you slice it,” as the author puts it. Plus the story just kind of moves on until it can rest in a relationship where the couple doesn’t cheat on each other.

As for “authentic ending” the author couldn’t of been more correct, in the end we will all die and we all know that… but no matter what kind of a happy ending anyone has, it is our call to remind everyone that there is a life after this one which has no ending. Then is when things will matter most, because in heaven life will be much better with no happy endings, rather eternal happiness. And if eternal happiness is found in Christ, then that must mean that only true happiness that is worth anything is also found in Christ. I don’t believe anyone can truly reach happiness without Christ because He is the only thing that can really fill our hearts up.

In these stories we see a lot of messed up things and the one that touched me the most was B, where the girl lets the guy use her. It hits me most and gets me mad too, because we see this a lot in our world. Last time I checked, over 1,000,000 teen girls alone in America get pregnant each year. I believe the reason is because a guy will have a girl that loves them and because the girl looks for happiness, or true love in that boy, she will do whatever keeps the boy happy even if it causes her pain in life. She seeks for something to fill her heart with and Prince Charming is the only thing that will ever do that and she is so convinced. But when we seek completeness or “happiness” in things outside of God we will always end up empty handed.

“Happiness without God is but a glimpse of it”

Quotes of Mel the Drunk in What we Talk about When We Talk about Love

"What do any of us really know about love?" Mel said... later he says "Am I wrong? Am I way off base? Because I want you to set me straight if you think I'm wrong. I want to know. I mean, I don't know anything, and I'm the first one to admit it.".... and to finish off my quotes, he said, "it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love."(he was relating to the story of the elders in the accident)



Is is not weird to anyone else that it takes getting drunk in this world for grown men to wrap their arms around their sons and daughters to tell them that they love them? Of course getting drunk has different effects on different people but here we see old Mel speaking like a theologian on the topic of LOVE. And though I don't think I could agree with his approach on love in the since of the way he lived it, his questions and statements are not far at all from what I would call the reality of love...



His question, what do any of us really know about love? is a question that will be answered differently through out our world of diversity, but in my opinion, what we know about God is really what we know about love. And that is absolutely nothing... you see because from a Christian point of view, if the Bible states that God is love(1 Jn 14.8,4.16), then how could anyone ever truly, possibly understand love. God gives us revelation in His Word about who He is and what Hes about so that we may understand Him, yet at times in our walk with Him we feel we understand nothing about this God of ours. What does man truly know about God? is the real question. Like Mel I ask, "Am I wrong? Am I way off base? Because I want you to set me straight if you think I'm wrong. I want to know. I mean I don't know anything, and I'm the first one to admit it." As much as I love Gods word and digging deep into it, I would have to say with the most humble heart that I am far from truly knowing anything about God, therefore how can I understand love. God gives us enough revelation to understand what He is not, therefore we can know what love is not and Terri's first situation was certainly not love for "love does no harm to its neighbor."(Ro 13.1o)



Concerning Mel's last statement, we should be ashamed when we talk about love like we know what were talking about, not because of the story he tells, but because of the greatest story ever told... the story of Jesus. How many of us would do what God did for a race like us? and it was not just because God loved us, as if he fell in love with us that He did it, but that he chose to love us. I say that because God in His sovereignty does not have to love us, for he does not need us(Job22.2-3) which goes to show that love is not something you fall into but something you chose to jump into... overall Mel's questions and statements to me, though he was just a drunk talking, show a humbleness that I believe all Christians could use in their search for Gods love. Even this drunk knew what love was not...



"Two things we will never fully understand, God and Love, but ironically we KNOW that God loves us."