To accuse God of doing wrong only adds to our grief, for it deprives us of the hope, joy, contentment, and confidence that may be found in him.
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Grief comes easily to me. The furnace of my many afflictions—stoked by painful bone disease, stage 4 cancer, advancing arthritis, perpetual 35-year-long head pain, and multiple lumbar injuries (not to mention various relational and spiritual sorrows)—has reached a point of high heat. My bones sometimes melt, and my spirit feels hot within me.
When you grieve as much as I have, you sometimes wonder what the Lord thinks of it. Is my grief permissible, or have I fallen into grieving doubt and self-pitying discontent? I believe there are biblical answers to these questions, since in many ways the Bible is a record of tears—one long, nearly unbroken recorded sequence of lament and joy.
