Caring Well for the Grieving and Dying
Jesus shows up through his people. Always, and especially in hard places. Anyone who has truly met him should automatically want to care for those in need. Which is beautiful. I’ve experienced that over and over in my life, especially in the years walking through the dying of my first wife. But caring poorly can also cause damage, or at the least add to the burden. And I’ve had a few of those experiences too. Recently, as another friend is walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I was asked to write up some thoughts on the do’s and don’ts of care. I thought I’d post them here. Before anything else, the most important principle is that caring, even imperfectly, is better than not caring at all. Showing up is always better than disappearing. I’m going to say some critical things in what follows. But I don’t want that to lead to paralysis; don’t be so afraid of saying or doing the wrong things that you fail to do the right ones. That said, here are a few principles to care as e...
