Today is National Grief Awareness Day, founded in 2014 by Angie Cartwright. Her life is one filled with tragedy. She was “conceived during an alcohol-fueled blackout, and born into a life of grief. Her mother was an addict and alcoholic. Angie never knew her real father.
“At age three, Angie and her 2-year-old sister were in a car wreck. At the wheel was her mother’s current boyfriend. Both Angie and her sister were thrown from the back of the station wagon. Angie suffered a broken jaw. Her sister suffered permanent brain damage.
“At age five, Angie found her 11-month-old sister dead in her crib from bronchial pneumonia. That same year, she watched in terror as her mother was brutally beaten by a boyfriend. Angie, too, suffered the same fate from time to time. She lived in fear of all men.
“When she was six, her mother’s newest boyfriend burned their home down. They lost everything except the clothes on their back. Angie’s mother fled with her children from California to Kansas with hopes of starting life anew. But tragedy followed.
“At age nine, Angie’s beloved uncle Tony died by suicide, hanging himself in a state hospital.”1
Nearly every year that followed was filled with more tragedy, death, and heartache. In 1996, her newlywed husband was involved in car accident and died from his injuries. The final blow came in 2010 when her mom relapsed and died from a drug overdose.
Angie went over the edge with grief. Decades of pain came crashing around her. What did she do? She turned to social media, reaching out to find others who were grieving. Within a year, she created her own Facebook group for grieving people. One “group” has grown into 24, reaching 2.5 million on Facebook alone. Thousands more find help reaching out through other social media avenues.
Angie has written a grief counseling book. She has started an organization to help grieving people. She has spoken across the United States on grief. And in her own words, she explains how this all came about. “My mother lived in grief all her life. But she
couldn’t talk about it, people didn’t want to hear about it. I became determined to bring grief out of the dark so others won’t suffer in silence the way my mother did. I became her voice,” shared Angie.”2
Interestingly, grief doesn’t just come from a death. It comes from a loss of a friendship, declining health, a move to another part of the country, the loss of a job or forced retirement, disappointment, and many other sources. We all grieve over something at some point in our lives and we need to know how to get through the situation.
I couldn’t find anything in Angie’s bio from any source that spoke of anything spiritual. I don’t know if she is a Christian, her testimony, or anything like that. All I know is that she wants to help others through grief and all the evidence points to the fact that she is doing a very good job with it.
With Jesus, though, so much more can be done to provide comfort and peace that will last.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
The early Christians went through a lot of griefs that we don’t usually experience. How many of their loved ones had been jailed or killed because of their faith in Christ? How many had lost their jobs because they followed The Way? How many had been pushed from their homes and all that was familiar due to persecution? How many bore the scars and wounds inflicted by Roman soldiers?
Only God can get you through grief. He can bring you out on the other side. While you are going through it, He can give you peace and comfort in the journey.
Every grieving person needs someone to be strong for them while they are weak. That’s exactly what the Lord does for us and what He calls other believers to do for each other. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” And in Romans 12:15 we read, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”
You may be reading this today and tears are trickling on the keyboard. That’s okay. You are not alone. You need to grieve. Just remember that the Lord doesn’t want you to remain in this painful place of grief. He wants to bring you through it, encourage you, and infuse you with a hope that you thought was long gone. Let Him minister to your pain today.
“I, even I, am he that comforteth you…” (Isaiah 51:12)
1https://www.theblaze.com/contributions/a-life-of-grief-loss-and-abandonment-leads-to-a-movement-of-hope-love-and-courage
2Ibid.
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