grief
After 50 years, Baptist editor Bob Terry bids farewell
By Bob Smietana — December 7, 2018
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) — The longtime editor of The Alabama Baptist is stepping down after 50 years of covering controversies and church ministries as a Baptist journalist.
What living with a death sentence can teach all of us about life
By Jonathan Merritt — February 6, 2018
(RNS) — 'If someone found cancer to be a gift, wonderful. But there is a certain cruelty to asking suffering people to bear the weight of other people’s theological conundrums,' Christian historian Kate Bowler tells RNS' Jonathan Merritt. (Commentary)
Missing Mom at the movies
By Jana Riess — April 21, 2015
Movies aren’t just entertainment; they’re memories of life and love. When I see a movie a second time I am always thinking about where I was and who I was with the first time. And Mom and I aren't making those memories anymore.
The grief that keeps on giving
By Jana Riess — October 30, 2014
These episodes don’t happen very often anymore, more than a year and a half after losing Mom. But the grief is always there, gently submerged, biding its time.
Robin Williams: Requiem for a dead poet
By Jana Riess — August 12, 2014
Robin Williams is one who seized the day, who sucked the marrow out of life, who gifted the world with a barbaric yawp.
A dog of sorrows, and acquainted with grief
By Jana Riess — February 14, 2014
God had not seen fit to give me another baby, but he did bring me a dog, an introspective black mutt who’d been discarded at an animal shelter. I think I needed him just as much as he needed me.
Grief as Liturgy
By Jana Riess — December 3, 2013
There is a liturgy to grief, an entire calendar of solemn commemorations juxtaposed with joyful memories.
Cancer-versary
By Jana Riess — October 31, 2013
"Trauma cancer" isn't a real medical diagnosis, but it is certainly an emotional one. It's a reminder of how quickly our lives can change. And the changes are irrevocable as the stuff of nightmares becomes our new, unwelcome waking truth.
Grief Bacon
By Jana Riess — September 16, 2013
Last year on Facebook I followed a link to a terrific article on mentalfloss.com that listed words we should have in English but don’t. Why, for example, does English not have a single word for “the day after tomorrow” or “the day before yesterday”? Other languages do this, and it just makes sense. But the […]
Making Space for Grief
By Jana Riess — August 28, 2013
I have the day off work today. I’m celebrating my mom’s birthday. Had she lived, she would have been 72. So today is going to be a time for celebrating my mom by enjoying things we would have done together. I will eat cake. I will go to an art museum. I will read more […]
Philip Yancey: A New Book and a Whole New Way of Publishing It
By Jana Riess — August 16, 2013
Philip Yancey's new book tackles "the question that never goes away" -- why there is so much suffering. The theme is perennial, but the book's digital-first format is not.
Grief and the Six-Month Anniversary
By Jana Riess — July 3, 2013
Sometimes the grief was so intense I literally could not breathe; it felt like something was physically pressing on my chest. Today, on the six-month anniversary of my mother's death, the anguish is slowly, almost imperceptibly, shifting into a lower gear.
Say It Now. Do It Now.
By Jana Riess — May 25, 2013
But there was a piercing sweetness in my grief, a gratitude that I held nothing back in my relationship with my mother. When there was loved be expressed, I said the words. I gave the hug.
From the Trenches: How to Help a Grieving Family
By Jana Riess — April 24, 2013
We often tell the bereaved, "Call me if you need anything at all!" But since people who are grieving are often incapable of asking for help, it's better to proceed with tangible acts of kindness.
Stephen Colbert, Grief Therapist
By Jana Riess — April 3, 2013
"I’ve always liked that phrase 'He was visited by grief,'" says Stephen Colbert. "Grief is its own thing. It’s not like it’s in me and I’m going to deal with it. It’s a thing, and you have to be okay with its presence."
