For Christians, the grieving process is markedly different than for non-believers, Dr. Carol Peters-Tanksley says. And while the deep, heart-wrenching pain can be felt by both, Peters-Tanksley says the believer’s outlook on pain and loss has a much different connotation.
“For the Christian that’s going through grief, it’s about embracing truly excruciating pain of loss and irrepressible hope at the very same time,” Peters-Tanksley told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of “Greenelines” on the Charisma Podcast Network. “Those two things can coexist.
“The very deep and heart-wrenching pain is real, it’s there. But, at the very same time, those of us who know Jesus, we know that this is not the end. There is the confidence that nothing, even the darkness and the pain of grief and death, cannot extinguish that hope.”
Peters-Tanksley, an OB-GYN physician and doctor of ministry, went through the grieving process in 2016 when her husband, Al, passed away. After God nurtured her through her grief, she felt compelled to write the book The Christian’s Journey Through Grief: How to Walk Through the Valley with Hope, due to be released later this month.
Peters-Tanksley clings to the confidence believers can have in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, which says, “But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.”
For the rest of Dr. Carol Peters-Tanksley’s story, listen to the podcast below.
