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At the time of me writing this video, there have been three deaths of people that I knew in the span of about two weeks. One was a good friend of mine who I grew up with, and I honestly thought he'd always be there. Another one was a person whose walk with God really encouraged me, and they spent a lot of their time sitting down with me to help me understand the Bible more. The last person was someone who I looked up to in many ways, and I was encouraged by their love for God. Being honest with you these days, lately, I've been a bit emotional. And one of the hardest things about death and tragedy is that unfortunately, time. Time moves on. And not only do we have to process our loss and our life, many times we're forced to move ahead because time doesn't stop. So really quick. Before I. Before I go any further in this video, I do want to say, if you're grieving a loss, I want you to know that your loss is unique and that I can't understand your specific pain. I'm honestly writing this video with a very heavy heart. And if when in the future I lose someone else, someone that's really close to me, like maybe my wife or my close family or my best friends, I hope that this video would be capable of helping me in the future. So in this video, what I will attempt to do is to give direction to those who are hurting or struggling with a loss. And I'll try to be as sensitive and to the point as I can. So let's start with step number one. Don't force healing. Job, chapter two, verse 13. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. So in the Bible, there was a man named Job. And Job was a man who not only lost all his belongings and wealth, but he also lost his seven sons and three daughters. And when his friends heard about what happened to him, they all went to Job and they just sat there with him. And I think there's a lot of value that can come from silence. So when it comes to dealing with loss, people process and handle it in many different ways. Some people need to keep moving and others can't move at all. And one thing that I found to be helpful when times are heartbreaking is to be okay with not being okay. I think one of the worst things to do is to pretend like things are fine and to force smiles. So if you're hurting, I think one of the first steps to healing is to allow yourself to feel hurt and to find little ways to help your hurt. For me personally, something that's helping me now process my grief is to focus on projects that I know could help a lot of people so that when I die, I could maybe still have a hand in helping people that I leave behind. That's me for you. I would encourage you to find a healthy way to feel your pain. Maybe that looks like therapy or time away from work or quality time with family or friends or journaling or more time to yourself. I don't know. But I want to encourage you to not force yourself to feel better, but to let healing come as you learn to accept your hurt and to find ways to process it in healthy ways. Step number two spend time with people who understand Romans chapter 12:15 rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep in this passage, Paul tells believers to respond with a bit of empathy and to rejoice with those people who are rejoicing and to weep with those who are weeping. So notice how it doesn't say correct those who weep or encourage those who weep. Rather, it says weep with those who weep. Honestly, in the past, whenever I was really struggling with loss, people who tried to encourage me annoyed me. Like, I know the right answer. Sure, I know there's hope and that God works out all things for good. But sometimes those answers just don't help me at the moment. And you know, the voices that really helped me during those tough times in my life were from people who went through something similar to me. And in my grief, they came alongside me and said, I understand. And then they proceeded to hurt with me. So my encouragement in these first two steps of this video is simple, and it's to allow yourself to hurt and to hurt with people who understand your pain and will make efforts to feel the same way that you feel. Because sometimes the best way to comfort others isn't to give them an answer, but to give them your time and a heart that tries to understand where they are emotionally. And step number three, try to see God. Luke chapter 23, verse 46 and when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Spirit having said this, he breathed his last. In this passage, Jesus was moments away from his death, and with a loud voice, he cried out to God and then breathed his last breath. And what I want you to see here is that this was a very dark moment in history. His disciples didn't think that Jesus would come back to life. So for them and for a lot of Jesus's followers, their world just fell apart. And at the same time, Jesus's death at that moment was something that God used in order to save people from their sin. And what I want you to see here is that God has a history of using bad things that happen for good. You know, someone whose death affected me greatly in the past was this singer named Christina Grimmie. For those of you who don't know her, she was a famous singer who got shot by someone, and she died at age 22 in 2016. And honestly, before she died, I didn't know anything about her. But being saddened at her death and seeing all the videos of her life, I soon learned that she was a believer and a strong follower of Jesus. And I remember watching one of her videos where she told her audience that Jesus loves them. And the reason why I'm telling you this is because for the past three, three years, if you've watched to the end in any of our videos on our channel, you'd see that we end all our videos by telling our audience, Jesus loves you. And Christina Grimmie is the one that I was inspired by to tell people that Jesus loves them so that I can continue what she would have done if she were still alive. And it's not just that. When I think of the people that I lost recently, it's making me reconsider the way I'm living my life. And now I'm working harder than ever to finish writing a discipleship training course so I can help believers become more mature in their faith. Because, honestly, all this death reminds me that my time will soon come. And if that's the case, I want to make sure that the time that I have left is used in a way that helps people and is meaningful. So, again, I don't want to sound insensitive to your situation, and I don't want to make it sound like everything's going to be great, but I do want to encourage you to try to see God in your life. Because while it may be a dark time now, I know that God does draw near to the brokenhearted. And that According to Romans 8:28, all things work together for good. To those who love God. Okay? So if you're going through loss, I'm sorry. And I would encourage you to take things one day at a time and to follow these three steps. Don't force healing. Spend time with people who understand and try to see God. Honestly, I could go on and talk about more steps on how to handle grief, but I think the reality is that sometimes we just need to allow ourselves to hurt and then to share our hurt with other people and to share our hurt with God. So I pray that today you find a small way to heal and that those small steps continue to add up over time. And while you or your situation may not ever be the same, I'm sure that the person you lost would want you to know that Jesus loves you. Sa.