In seasons of poignant grief and loss, we all ask a version of the question, “How long, O Lord?”

Though Scripture tells us that God draws uniquely near to the hurting, experiencing hope amid our pain often feels impossible. How can we sit with God in our suffering, and experience his loving presence even as we lament? 

Join host Jay Y. Kim as he welcomes Natasha Smith, a grief advocate, speaker, and author of Can You Just Sit with Me? and Black Woman Grief. Smith brings her expertise as a Certified Grief Educator and lived experience to guide others in finding healing and company in loss.

In this conversation, Kim and Smith discuss how personal, communal, and societal grief often reveal our truest selves—our tendencies, character, and intrinsic need for God. She also gently encourages us to heed God’s invitation to lament with him in seasons of heartache. As we process devastating loss, God can reimage, reveal, and restore us through our grief, shouldering our raw emotions and shepherding our eventual healing. Smith also reminds us that Jesus is the “suffering Savior” who understands our pain, as well as the one who endured death to bring about the reality of resurrection. 

Tune in to learn how the presence of God can provide reprieve and relief in the midst of upending grief.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• Being honest with God about our heavy emotions
• Finding hope and supernatural peace amid loss 
• Experiencing Jesus as our suffering Savior

Links from this episode: 

• Know more about Natasha Smith
• Read Natasha Smith’s book, Black Woman Grief
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

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