My fellow blogger recently discussed The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Well, I hope you don't mind reading another thought about Lewis. This one is about his book A Grief Observed. And just for fair warning...my next one will be on him as well. :) Anywho, on to grief! It's a short book (less than 100 pages) and a relatively easy read, although there being some parts where one might like to stop and ponder the text a bit. I found this to be the case as I was reading.
The book itself is originally Lewis sort of journaling about his experience of grief after losing his beloved wife. The book is full of those all-important questions such as "why does God allow this?" "where is she?" and "is she at peace?" He does offer some thoughts on these questions, but also addresses many other things in the process. As noted, there were a number of thoughts that I had to stop and ponder. Several things in here were issues that I've thought about a good bit, and even some things that I'm currently struggling with. Just a couple of quotes that I found to be good food for thought:
"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. Apparently the faith - I thought it faith - which enables me to pray for the other dead has seemed strong only because I have never really cared, not desperately, whether they existed or not. Yet I thought I did."
"Lord, are these your real terms? Can I meet H. again only if I learn to love you so much that I don't care whether I meet her or not? Consider, Lord, how it looks to us."
A good book to read to see one man's experience of death and grief, and to maybe get a different viewpoint on a theology of death and suffering. Certainly gave me some more concrete visualizations to turn to for explanation.
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