Ep 26 | Grief and Loss

Are you navigating the complexities of grief and loss? How do you turn faith from a mere concept into a practical tool for navigating life's challenges? Our newest podcast episode offers a blend of Christian empathy and psychological insight to aid your path to recovery. 

Jemese dives deep into the intricate dance between faith and adversity, revealing actionable strategies for harnessing the power of faith in your everyday life. 

In this episode, you'll learn about:

1. The intersection of faith and psychology: Discover how faith and professional insight collaborate in facing life's challenges.

2. Grief's potential: Explore how loss can lead to profound growth and spiritual understanding.

3. The enduring power of prayer: Uncover prayer's ability to bring hope and connection to Jesus, guiding you through every season.

✨NEW HERE? ✨ Meet Jemese LaChel Drewery, LCSW, CCTP - Spirit-filled trauma expert and host of A New Creation Podcast. Through Christ-centered conversations and inspiring testimonies, Jemese guides women to healing, deeper faith, and freedom in Jesus Christ. 

🎙 Do you have a faith story to share?   Tap here and be our next guest!

CONNECT WITH JEMESE:
📸 Instagram: @jemeselachel
📘 Facebook: fb.com/graceabidesco
🧠 Counseling: graceabides.co
🌱 Mentorship: jemeselachel.com

Transcript

Navigating Grief and Faith Journey

Jemese LaChel 0:00

Well, hey, friends, this is Kimi's, obviously, and it's been a minute. My heart is so raw and I'm just feeling a little vulnerable even as I sit down to record this episode. It has just been so long. It feels like it's been well over a year. I know. If I look back, it's really just been a few months since I last uploaded an episode. We were going to head into the song of Solomon and then, bam, life happened right and uh. So we'll get back to that at some point in the future. I know that there's been some ladies who are really looking forward to that, but, um, yeah, I just feel like I owe it to you as my listeners to um. Share a little bit before we dive right back in.

Jemese LaChel 0:48

The cool thing has been just God's intentionality. Is that a word? He's been so intentional with me? You know, if we know that God is our father and we come to him as a child would come to their father, well, I fully expect that when I pray that I'm going to get a response, and it may not be right away. It may not be the response that I expected. His response may seem to come a little bit delayed. His response may be what seems like he's just very, very quiet, but he speaks to me in his word, or you know. But I fully expect that when I pray or when I come to the Lord, that he's gonna speak to me. Something that the Lord has spoken to me has been that this podcast project which is not mine, it was always his this project is something that he wants to continue to push forth out into the nations. And so, like I've had these hiccup moments. Most of you who have been with me through the beginning, from the beginning, may recall little moments, little seasons where I would step away or you know, episodes would come out and I would step away and that kind of thing. Pick it up, put it down. And it's just been really obvious to me that the Lord is saying now is the time to pick this thing back up. So I'm excited because that means that there's actually several new testimonies coming down the pipeline.

Jemese LaChel 2:15

For those who are new to this podcast, we share women's faith stories here. We share women's testimony of Jesus Christ. We share about how, you know, we we've come to find Jesus and the things that he's walked us through. I am a Christian trauma therapist and I'm also a mentor for women, and so something that the Lord has been really deliberate with communicating to me is that there is a purpose for why he placed me specifically in this marketplace, with this platform, and it has nothing to do with me at all.

Jemese LaChel 2:57

It has everything to do with the Lord, jesus and his will and what he wants to happen, because a lot of times, a person will go online to try to get help for a mental health illness or something that they're going through or you know, they're trying to find themselves, whatever that's supposed to mean, and they end up being met with a lot of secular solutions. The beautiful thing about that is that the Lord gave us the science of the mind. He understood the science of the body, and so it's not a surprise that secular psychology or you know, these solutions can actually help people benefit. They can actually help people to feel better in their bodies, to, you know, recover from trauma. But the problem is that whenever we pursue our healing in those ways alone, it ends up being something that we have to be married to for life. It ends up being something that permanent deliverance and healing doesn't come from, that you end up feeling like you have to wear these labels the entire rest of your life or you have to maintain these coping strategies the entire rest of your life.

Jemese LaChel 4:16

When Jesus said he came to set the captives free, jesus said who the sun sets free is free and deep. Jesus is the healer, he's the deliverer. So there exists a space where the science of the mind, the science of trauma healing, the science of that kind of stuff, needs to be matched and met with the power of Jesus Christ and somebody who can help walk you through that. And that's what I do. And the Lord has said it's time to pick that back up again. And so here I am and it feels messy, but I know that it's not because he's with me, but I just want it to be real, because I'm a person and I don't ever want my clients to sit here and think that I don't go through things. I think that it's a misconception that because we follow Christ, that we don't go through things. But he said that we would. I don't know where this idea came from. I believed it when I first came into the faith that I just you know, wouldn't have problems like that anymore because Jesus is a way maker and yes, he is. But he also promised us that we would be persecuted, we would go through trials and all this, that and the other, but he tells us how to deal with that. He says to count on joy and he tells us. He tells us how to deal with that. And this is my long winded way of saying that.

Jemese LaChel 5:39

You know part of why I stepped away from the podcast and from offering like support to ladies Some already know this but because I experienced a loss. I experienced a very tragic loss not even a week before Thanksgiving here in the U S. Um 2024, my no. 2023, november 2023, my mother passed away very unexpectedly and I'm not going to share details about her loss here. Um, but yeah, like life happened and it's just been such a journey. It's been such a journey for me. It's been hard, it's been beautiful, it's been, um, interesting and, like I don't know if you guys have the interest in that, we can get into some of the grief talk because, like man, grief is weird and it makes me feel like people act weird and say weird things to you and, um, it's just been so interesting because, through that experience, I have had such an intimacy with the Lord that I would not have known otherwise. I was telling someone not too long ago that, like while I, while we would never wish this type of pain on anyone, there's just a, there's a beauty at a depth that only God can give. Through knowing him that way, through knowing him through grief, through knowing him through pain, through knowing him through suffering, there's something so beautifully intimate that we can only know him that way.

Jemese LaChel 7:24

Someone shared with me in a card that I received it. Maybe she's listening to this podcast episode, but it it blessed me so much. In the Beatitudes, matthew chapter 5, it says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall become for tip. And she began to explain to me. This was a dear sister in Christ who had lost her mother. I want to say, maybe two years prior, she found out what happened with my mom and how we just lost her. So suddenly she said you know, jimmy's, the beautiful thing about Christ is that through loss, through our morning, in our morning, we are promised an encounter with the Holy Spirit. We're in prom, we're promised an encounter with a comforter, and many of us have read that scripture many times. But man, it just, it just hit me different. It hit me different and that's been something I've climbed to.

Jemese LaChel 8:35

So I guess I just bring all that up to say like, yeah, it's been hard and grief is hard and there are grieving people all over the world, but what a beauty in recognizing that in that grief, the Lord, he, wants to meet you there. He says that you're blessed. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. I hopped on here today and he brought me to John 14, 27, where he says this is Jesus. He says peace. I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you, but not your heart be troubled, neither, let it be afraid.

Jemese LaChel 9:22

There's just so many promises, cover to cover, in the Bible and I think it's easy to pick up the Bible and, like you know, people tell you you're not supposed to pick it up to find out more about you. You're supposed to read the Bible and what it does is it reveals more of who God is to us, reveals more of his will, his character, his nature. It reveals his heart for humanity and it does also tell us about our proper identity in him. It does also tell us how we are to navigate our lives. It does also tell us about our own self, and so I don't know.

Jemese LaChel 10:06

I don't know why I'm saying that. Maybe somebody needs to hear it, maybe I'm saying that for myself. But I just want to encourage you and the Lord that whatever you're going through, whatever your thing is because we all have that thing maybe it doesn't feel as like huge as, okay, I lost my mom or I lost my loved one, or, you know, maybe your thing is much Bigger than that. Maybe your thing is, you know, doesn't even compare and I haven't even I haven't even hit the nail in the head yet, right, know that God's word does Speak to you. God's word does have wisdom. God's word does have wisdom for you. The Lord does want you, in his word, to hear what he has to say. He has a word that applies to you.

Jemese LaChel 11:00

Fear will creep in and try to tell you that you're not good enough. Fear will creep in and tell you that you know You're doing too much. Fear will creep in and just tell you all kind of things. But I just told somebody that, literally earlier today, I said where in the Bible does it tell us to fear? It doesn't. It doesn't Weird if you're nothing but the Lord.

Jemese LaChel 11:24

And the fear of the Lord is not the fear that the world has, just like the peace that Jesus gives us. It's not like the peace that we'll find out there in the world, for peace that we find out in the world it doesn't last. It comes with suffering, but the peace that the Lord gives us endures. His peace will meet you, even in our hospital room when your mother's dying. You know like not to be graphic, but the peace of God will meet you. The peace of God will meet you and the place of pain in your life, the peace of God, will meet you. And you don't have to mess straight up and you don't have to try hard for and you don't have to strive about it. But the peace of God, it will find you. And if you hear little feet in the background while I'm talking, that's my five-year-old Wanting to hear, wanting to see what her mama's doing in her prayer, closet talking to Talking to you ladies.

Jemese LaChel 12:23

Anyways, I don't know where I was at. This was. This episode is really just meant to be. Like me dipping my toes back in the water for like the millionth time Is what it feels like. I've done several episodes like these where I've laid it down and I'm picking it back up, but I am. I'm here and I'm being obedient and I'm excited to share what God has done and what he's doing, and I'm very excited to continue to point Others to Jesus.

Jemese LaChel 12:50

The very cool thing I'll wrap up with this is that, like you know, I have not been active with the podcast for the last several months, yet I get a weekly what's it called like? A weekly email For my podcast host, and it's just been so incredible to see that, despite me doing literally nothing like, there's still people listening to this podcast and it is still affecting People, and people are getting deliverance. People are, you know, reaching out and saying what you know. They want to contact this guest or that guest or you know, and then hearing testimony of people having listened to certain episodes. They're getting deliverance and that is just Such a glory to God like I will never steal his glory. I will never say it was me. I will never say anything like that, because I know that it is only him who could have done this. That is only the Lord Jesus who could have done this, and for that very reason, I am just so willing to to keep going.

Blessing and Gratitude

Jemese LaChel 13:50

Sometimes my heart still hurts and it feels raw still to me and even as a as a trauma therapist like I am navigating life. I'm navigating Strong emotion, I'm navigating grief. I'm navigating All of those things right. But I know what it's like to hurt. I know what it's like to experience tragedy. I know what that's like. I know what it's like to pick up and say I'm gonna keep going. I know what it's like to be like. You know what Jesus you told me that XYZ, but I'm not seeing it in my life, but I'm gonna choose you anyways. I know that kind of stuff is likely to run all those ideas and thoughts through your head and I don't know.

Jemese LaChel 14:34

Anyways, I'm rambling. I just wanted to pop on here. I'm very grateful for your time. I just pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you. I forgot to pray before we started this episode, so let's do that now.

Jemese LaChel 14:48

Gracious father, I want to thank you for the opportunity to connect with these listeners. I pray that the name of Jesus, you would bless each and every one, lord God, that you would meet them right there in their place of need, that you would touch every Stony place in their heart, that you would just have your way and let your name be known in the earth. Have your way, lord God, and bring the deliverance that only you can bring. Have your way, lord God. I mean the peace and only you can bring. I pray that the Lord would bless you and keep each and every one of my listeners, but you, specifically you, who's listening right now. I pray that the Lord will keep you until we meet again. Thank you for taking the time to listen. I invite you to come follow me on Instagram. Action means less shell. That's where I do all my updates and that's the place I most active on social media. I can't wait to connect with you and, yeah, peace.