The Lost Come Running

Loss. It’s so easy to define.

Loss. We throw it around in casual conversation. 

Loss. It remains such a small word.

Loss. What a funny word, but to experience it is a whole different thing. Loss leads to grief. 

And they both come. Together. 

No one tells you how to live after the carpet has been swept from underneath you, when the walls feel like they're closing in. When your world is crumbling and it's hard to even just breathe.

As Noah and the whale once said “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.”, whether we do or not. The world keeps on turning, the sun keeps on rising. Setting. But you keep asking yourself, how do I go on?

So, How do you go on?

With every passing minute, hour, day, week, month, anniversary.

You see.. LIFE IS HARD. Loss will come. It will batter us in all directions, we will suffer loss in all forms. Death, Health, Relationships, and your favourite Pot noodle flavour - to name a few, over the last year for me. 

But no one tells you what to do when loss was not just a year of your life but the theme of it. Weaved throughout has been a steady stream of “I’m sorry for your LOSS” or “I’m sorry you’re going through this”. From childhood these phrases echo. 

Every single one creating a void in your soul, longing to be filled. 

Every chair that empties round the table. 

Every face that disappears from the photo. 

Every number no longer to be used in your phone. 

Every new diagnosis that comes with a bang. 

What do we do when loss hits?

Do we run? Run away from the void that the loss created? Whether it’s by crawling into bed and just avoiding the problem; by throwing ourselves headfirst into frenzied to-do list; or if you're like me and just go off the rails, avoiding that the loss happened at all.

But in all our running have we ever stopped to consider that there is someone who has been chasing after us the whole time? 

Have we been too busy running from Loss, too busy being hurt and longing for things to be back to the way they used to be to consider that this someone who has always been the constant that we longed for the whole time?

In our running from loss we never run alone. Jesus came to this earth to run towards loss for me and for you, so that he could stand with us as we face it. n our loss, our longing and in our running we have someone that wants us. We have someone to run to. That chases after us when we run.

What difference does it make to know that I have this Jesus in my loss? Someone that can handle all of my cries of frustration. All of my pain. My doubts. My Loss. My Grief. To know that he experienced loss. So that in my loss and my grief he can meet me there, because he endured it too. For me. For you.

He’s where I run to. Where do you?

Lynn Graham

Lynn works with students in Edinburgh having graduated in the middle of Covid in Radiotherapy and Oncology. She's a country bumpkin girl at heart, a lover of all things tye-dye, anything yellow-orange and is never seen without a pair of crocs.