LEAKING
GRIEF

Topics: Coping; Forgetting; Grief; Memories; Pain; Sorrow

References: Job 16:12; John 16:20; 2 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Fifty years ago, industrialists thought they could just bury toxic waste and it would go away. We have since learned it doesn’t just go away. Toxic waste leaks into the water table, contaminates crops, and kills animals.

Buried grief does the same thing. Raw time doesn’t heal a thing. Buried pain leaks into our emotional system and wreaks havoc there. It distorts our perceptions of life, and it taints our relationships. That contamination happens subconsciously.

—Bill Hybels, “A Better Kind of Grieving,” Preaching Today Audio, no. 108