Tag: Grieve

  • Memorial Services

    Memorial Services

    Photo of solitary lit candle with a partially lit blue background.

     
    I’ll tell you, memorial services are good services. Beliefs have to be held to account at this most difficult time. After all, if God is loving, why does death exist?

    At a memorial, good church leaders HAVE to answer that question because attendees are there for comfort.

    I have a cousin that was studying to become a Catholic priest when he died at age 26. His service started with “God got it wrong.” The service articulated our grief and 3 hours and much incense later, I’d cried all of the tears I could and felt much better.

    The Archbishop of York did a good job with this Sunday service memorial for Queen Elizabeth. I’ll provide 2 good quotes:

    “Hence in the Lord’s Prayer,
    the daily diet of prayer for Christians everywhere,
    we say your will be done, not mine.
    Your kingdom come, not the kingdoms of the world,
    and on earth as it is in heaven.
    If you were looking for a simple role model
    of someone who lived their life this way,
    then our dear departed Queen Elizabeth
    would be a good example.

    The paradox of this is hard to avoid.
    It was a monarch, a queen, who it turns out
    is one of the best examples of the fact
    that the kingdoms of this world will pass away
    and we shouldn’t put too much trust in them.
    And Queen Elizabeth was able to live this way
    because she had a clear sense of her place,
    her role, and her duty, which was also for her a vocation.

    …

    The one to whom we bent the knee
    knew to whom she had to bow
    and to whom she would be called to give account.
    I guess this is why she was able to live
    a life of such remarkable service.”
     
    It wasn’t just that Elizabeth ‘tried to be good’ as a Christian, she knew her kingdom was not the Kingdom of all. She would be held accountable for her actions and it was in fear of that, that she put her lifelong service to work. If you think of it that way, it’s not hard to figure out her life at all.

  • Grief…At A Distance

    Grief…At A Distance

     

    On remote teams, hold space for sadness.

    I published my How to connect in remote teams  post one month ago. But this post is about something ten times
    more important. It’s not about celebrating and having good times with
    your fellow remote workers. It is about the opposite. Of all of the twelve months of the year to pick from to really dwell on this topic, October is it; no better month than the one directly preceding Dia del Muertos or All Saints Day. We’re
    decorating with black cats, skeletons, and coffins. This is the month
    to acknowledge death as part of the circle of life. Depending on your
    spiritual beliefs, death and loss are absolutely necessary in our
    understanding of life. This article is for remote managers and it is
    about the importance of holding space for grief.

     

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