We sit down with counselor and artist Mary Ellen Owen for a candid, life-giving conversation about why tears matter, how to tell when your present reactions are hooked to old stories, and what it takes to move from self-protection to genuine comfort. Mary Ellen unpacks the crucial difference between acute grief—the wrecking ball moments of death, divorce, and diagnosis—and the quieter, lingering grief we outrun with busyness and control. Her insight is disarming and practical: it is not pain alone that shapes us, but pain plus isolation. Comfort changes everything.

Mary Ellen revisits her own turning point with the “wailing women” of Jeremiah and shows why many of us need to be led into lament. This isn’t wallowing; it’s relational healing. When we risk grief in safe company—human and divine—we discover the Comforter who collects our tears in a bottle and restores our capacity for delight. The result is a lived paradox: holding death and resurrection at once. 

Book reference: “Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God’s Delivering Presence in the Old Testament” by L. Juliana M. Claassens

Listen now, share this episode with a friend who needs comfort, and leave a review to help others find the show. Subscribe for part two with Mary Ellen as we go deeper into practices that make lament a path to resilient joy.

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