House of Grief - Jill Phillips

     I went kicking, I went screaming,
    Thrown into the deep
    Filled with fear and not believing
    There'd be help for me

Grief... it's not something that most people run towards. Rather, as a culture we've made a big deal of ways to avoid and not deal with grief.

    Seemed the world I knew was gone

    Sorrow had become my home

I sort of feel like as a culture we only know how to get stuck in grief or how to avoid it. But not how to enter into it in a healthy way. How to walk with people. How to hold onto the good and the bad at the same time. 

    In the depths of my own darkness

    I felt saving hands

    People who would brave the water

    Get me back to land

    Now I'm only trying to be

    The same thing that they were to me

I don't have any real desire to walk into the house of grief. It's a painful place. But friends - when we're there, we're there and what we need more than anything is someone to wade out into the water with us, to brave getting wet to help bring us back to dry land. We don't need someone to say "There's a reason for your loss," or "I know how much it costs" - we don't know, we can't know, and frankly we waste time trying to find reasons that only God can understand. The amazing thing about walking into the house of grief with someone is that it doesn't take any special skills - just the ability to sit and listen. To be with. 

    One thing I discovered

    is that in this house of grieving

    There's communion in the suffering

    You are not alone

You are not alone. Hear that again - if you are finding yourself in the house of grief you are not alone. And when you aren't dwelling in the house of grief, what a gift you have that you can walk in, and sit with someone. Feel with them, hold them close. Show them that love has the final word.

    I will go boldly into the house of grief

    Walk right through the open door

    I will go boldly into the house of grief

    'cause love always has the final word

I went kicking, I went screaming,

Thrown into the deep

Filled with fear and not believing

There'd be help for me

Seemed the world I knew was gone

Sorrow had become my home

It took falling, it took doubting,

It took years of pain

Before my heart could figure how to 

beat with hope again

After all I made it through

There's one thing I can't help but do

I will go boldly into the house of grief

Walk right through the open door.

I will go boldly into the house of grief

I don't have to run from it anymore

In the depths of my own darkness

I felt saving hands

People who would brave the water

Get me back to land

Now I'm only trying to be

The same thing that they were to me

When I go boldly into the house of grief

Because I've been there before

I will go boldly into the house of grief

I don't have to run from it anymore

I will go boldly into the house of grief

Walk right through the open door

I will go boldly into the house of grief

I don't have to run from it anymore

I wouldn't dare to tell you

"There's a reason for your loss,

I know how much it costs"

There's no way I can know

One thing I discovered

is that in this house of grieving

There's communion in the suffering

You are not alone

When I go boldly into the house of grief

Because I've been there before

I will go boldly into the house of grief

I don't have to run from it anymore

I will go boldly into the house of grief

Walk right through the open door

I will go boldly into the house of grief

'cause love always has the final word