Dear Sophie: Letters on Grief

• Growing out of God

  Like us, our faith needs to grow and develop. If it doesn't, it can become restrictive and stifling. Often, we have a conception of faith that is fixed and concrete. Grief can ask some pretty unforgiving questions of us. Rather than doggedly hold to a particular way of seeing things, there may be more life in letting our grief break things down and then see what we can build out of the rubble. Dear Sophie: Letters on Grief is brought to you by The Common, a community of curious humans from First Church who gather to work out how to make the best of the outrageous privilege of being alive. If you want to know more, or connect, just email [email protected] for more details.

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• Cornered by Suffering

  In this letter, we explore how suffering likes to get us on our own, amplifying our pain and isolating us from our support. The challenge is to find ways to reach out when our impulse is to curl up and hide. Dear Sophie: Letters on Grief is brought to you by The Common, a community of curious humans from First Church who gather to work out how to make the best of the outrageous privilege of being alive. If you want to know more, or connect, just email [email protected] for more details.

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• The Meaning Behind the Meaninglessness

  In the last letter, we explored how grief and suffering are not always part of God's plan. They don't automatically have redemptive meaning. In this letter, we are working out what that meaningless means about the world, our pain and what God is up to. Dear Sophie: Letters on Grief is brought to you by The Common, a community of curious humans from First Church who gather to work out how to make the best of the outrageous privilege of being alive. If you want to know more, or connect, just email [email protected] for more details.

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• What does it all mean?

  The question of meaning is never far from the human struggle with suffering. The conviction is that if we can simply find a meaningful interpretation of our pain, then our pain will be worthwhile. However, this can result in us living as if everything were 'meant to be.' And this, friends, maybe an even bigger problem. Dear Sophie: Letters on Grief is brought to you by The Common, a community of curious humans from First Church who gather to work out how to make the best of the outrageous privilege of being alive. If you want to know more, or connect, just email [email protected] for more details.

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• Ruth's Story

  In this episode, Malcolm tells the story of his friend Ruth, who after years of pretending, found a way to make room for who she really was and what she was really feeling, and found that it also made room for others to be similarly authentic. Authenticity like this makes room for grief too. Dear Sophie: Letters on Grief is brought to you by The Common, a community of curious humans from First Church who gather to work out how to make the best of the outrageous privilege of being alive. If you want to know more, or connect, just email [email protected] for more details.

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