Kristina Lunde

The Lord is my strength and my song.
Psalm 118:14a

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September 30, 2023 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

A Sadiversary Grief Pilgrimage

A sadiversary grief pilgrimage. What is it? A sadiversary is the anniversary of a loved one’s death, a calendar date that marks another year after the loss. In the context of grief and sadiversary dates, I like the definition of a pilgrimage as a journey undertaken as a quest for a purpose, as to pay homage. Some definitions relate a pilgrimage to a sacred place, shrine, or an act of religious devotion, but I don’t believe in enshrining a place or idolizing a deathbed. In fact, the location of your love one’s death may still be painful years later.

Sólheimasandur, Iceland Image by 12019 from Pixabay

Same Date, Different Pilgrimages

This summer, two different sadiversary grief pilgrimages focused on the same date: June 13th. In one case, an entire family took a cross-country road trip, traveling over a thousand miles to visit a motorcycle crash site on the first sadiversary. They planned in advance, made arrangements for lodging, and decided how to retrace the last days of their patriarch’s life. I spoke with the widow and her daughter as they prepared for their pilgrimage. Although tearful and grieving, they were determined to make this trip meaningful for all involved.

In contrast, the other pilgrimage occurred half of a century after the death, on the fiftieth sadiversary. Months before she traveled 2000+ miles for the journey, a woman researched many details of her father’s fatal crash. She looked up obituaries, plat map books, and location maps. Her research also involved pre-computer methods: a library visit to photograph bound newspapers (in 1973, this library did not use micro-fiche storage), a letter campaign to many families in the region, and telephone conversations with people who responded to the letters. Attempts to track down eye-witnesses proved challenging because people had died, moved, or sold their land. However, several younger family members had been told the story and passed on new information to the grieving daughter. The family members of the original eye witnesses invited her out to the crash site and welcomed her and her aunt with genuine hospitality and kindness.

These two sadiversary grief pilgrimages, although centered on the same day, illustrate the truth of how unique the grief experience is for each individual. A grief pilgrimage can be a time to commemorate your loved one, honor their life, and process your grief. Or more importantly, an opportunity to recognize the grief that you have already processed. Whether you take a grief pilgrimage on the sadiversary or at another time, here are some ideas to consider when you visit the site of your loved one’s death or another site associated with memories of the deceased.

Plan Ahead

As you plan, consider the site and any accommodations you need to make. For example, obtain permissions, determine how to access a specific area, and recognize safety factors, etc. If the exact location is unaccessible, consider a place nearby where you could spend time reflecting. For example, you cannot sit in a busy intersection, but perhaps you could park on a side street. Decide on your goals and activities as you plan ahead.

Bring a supportive friend or family member—or complete this on your own. Recognize and respect that everyone grieves differently. One person’s grief pilgrimage will have different goals and expectations than another person’s. There may be family members who don’t want to join you because they are not ready or they have already processed their grief in different ways. If you invite people, discuss your plans and expectations in advance.

Make a Back-up Plan

Visiting or revisiting the site may elicit the pain and grief you previously experienced or bring up new emotions. This may trigger difficult responses, even if you have never seen the site before. Strategize how to cope with any overwhelming emotions that may arise. If you deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, make a plan—perhaps with the help of a counselor. Have an exit prepared, but don’t rush away before you accomplish what you set out to do. Find a place to regroup near the site you plan to visit.

Set Realistic Expectations

This pilgrimage may be a quest for peace and closure, but recognize that you may not find the answers or closure you seek. In fact, this journey may bring up more questions than answers. As much as you knew your loved one, you may not know everything about what they felt and how they dealt with the events leading up to their death. Answer the questions you can, and be flexible with your idea of closure. Be realistic about what you can accomplish and be prepared that this experience might not turn out exactly as expected.

At the Site

Give yourself time to process everything. Recognize that heavy grief is exhausting. You may need extra time, comfort, or space when you physically and emotionally revisit an earlier place of grief and pain. Be careful not to make the location of your loved one’s death a sacred place or an idol that controls you. Say a prayer, have a moment, read a Bible verse, write in your journal—whatever comforts you.

Consider a souvenir: take a picture, find a rock, pick a flower/leaf to press, or buy a souvenir from the town/region. Be careful what you leave, especially if the site is owned by someone else. (No one wants plastic flowers that will be plowed under at the next snowfall.) Contact the owners or the park staff for suggestions of a memorial. Perhaps they have an idea for a bench, a marker, or a tree to commemorate your loved one. They may have an idea you never considered. Be flexible and respect the property and its owners.

A sadiversary grief pilgrimage may provide a comforting quest to grieve, honor, and remember your loved one. To maximize your experience, plan your goals in advance, set realistic expectations for yourself, and consider what you will do at the actual site. Expect that not everything will be explained or come to closure. I encourage you to look to Jesus for the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), and recognize that we won’t understand everything this side of heaven.

Filed Under: Grief Tagged With: grief, pilgrimage, sadiversary

August 30, 2023 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Eve: My Sin and God’s Mercy

Painted by Henry Styleman LeStrange, 1858, on the Nave Ceiling, Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England. Image by Reissaamme from Pixabay

Dear Modern Mama,
Even if you don’t spend much time in the Bible, you’ve probably heard of me. I’m Eve, the first woman on earth, the mother of all mothers. Perhaps you have heard of the beautiful garden where my husband Adam and I made our first home. Newlyweds with a great place to live—rent-free, an in-person relationship with our Lord God, and the most incredible flowers you have ever seen. I could go on and on about the incredible flora and fauna, but it all changed suddenly and dramatically, which is what I want to talk about.

Have you ever sinned? I learned about sin by experience—sadly, I’m one of the original experts on it. I define sin as anything I think, say, or do that disobeys God. Have you thought, spoken, or acted against God and then felt guilty? What made you realize that you sinned against God? Perhaps the Holy Spirit convicted you. That can be tough, but imagine God’s conviction given in-person! Very scary, which is why my husband Adam and I initially hid from God. When God asked Adam directly if he had eaten from the tree that God commanded us not to, we knew we were caught in our sin. Guilty. Both of us. The blaming followed: Adam blamed me and I blamed the serpent. My advice? Don’t try the “he said/she said” argument in front of our all-knowing God. I don’t recommend it.

After that confrontation, the more that Adam and I recognized our sins, the more we felt guilty. Our Creator God loved and provided for us. The one thing He warned us about is what I disobeyed. How could I turn my back on my loving Lord God to believe that lying serpent? That serpent did nothing but deceive me! In contrast, God had created, provided for, and loved me personally and unconditionally. What was I thinking?! I turned my back on all of that to believe a lie. And I acted in disobedience. And then, I talked my husband into doing the same.

Caught. Found guilty. Punished. Both Adam and I had to live out the consequences of our sins. We shifted from the purity of God’s creation to covering our guilty shameful selves with leaves. God drove us away from His presence. From an easy life as caretakers of God’s beautiful garden with readily available food, we were forced out—to a life of hard work. As sinful beings, we could no longer stay in the garden with our holy Lord God. That’s when my terror of snakes started. (And, Modern Mama, I’m sorry about that childbirth pain! Please know that I experienced the same curse—that nasty labor pain—because my firstborn Cain was born outside the garden.)

Yes, we once had it all: time with God in-person and a care-free, purposeful life. Our sins interrupted everything and shut us out of God’s presence. But God was merciful and did not punish us with immediate death as our sins deserved. (He even made garments for us out of animal skins!) In the middle of the consequences given for our sins, God gave the first promise of His Messiah. That gave us hope. Although no longer present in-person, God remained a significant part of our lives. Through backbreaking labor (both in farming and childbirth), parenting, dealing with our kids’ sibling rivalry, and other challenges, we always kept the hope of God’s promise. We knew there was a better place, because we had seen and experienced it.

Modern Mama, you have God’s promises in writing. As you may have read, I committed awful sins, but I also experienced God’s mercy. He didn’t kill me for my sins, even though I truly deserved death as a consequence. We all do! But God sent His son—in-person—to sacrifice for all of our sins. Take it from me, God is merciful and and He offers forgiveness. Please don’t give up hope. Read your Bible for the whole story.

And remind me to tell you about that beautiful garden . . .
Eve

Filed Under: Letter Tagged With: hope, mother, parenting, sin

July 18, 2023 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Job’s Wife on Grief and Bitterness

Dear Modern Mama,

No, you probably don’t know much about me. I’m not a Bible superstar or good example of faith. In fact, the infamous line I am known for is, “Curse God and die!” (Thankfully, my words are only recorded in one Bible verse, Job 2:9.) Despite that, I hope to encourage you to seek God during the grief and suffering that life inevitably brings.

As my husband Job lay in ashes scraping his painful wounds, I questioned how he could maintain his faith. That’s when I urged him to give up on God and give in to death. I did not mean for Job to take his own life. Instead, I meant that he should blame God and let death take him, since he was half-dead already. Yes, I wrongly said evil things as I wallowed in my grief and bitterness. At the time, I didn’t know what else to do but blame God. Enemy raids, sword attacks, deadly fires, and fierce winds killed animals and people, including our ten children. My precious children! Taken from us in multiple sudden catastrophes. My entire life as a mother wiped out. Farmworkers, shepherds, nannies: all employees gone in an instant. Our livelihood ruined. I felt crushed and overwhelmed by grief and sorrow.

Photo by Matthew Spiteri on Unsplash

I got angry at God and succumbed to bitterness. Job’s friends sat with him for one week in empathy and mourning. I couldn’t stand being near Job because of his stinky breath and those putrid boils. Now, I am ashamed of my actions and of how I blamed God. I write to you in hopes that you will follow my husband Job’s example instead of mine. Don’t be like me and let grief and bitterness take over your heart until you shut out God. Notice that I am never named, and never again quoted, in the Bible.

Job maintained his close relationship with God. Despite being confronted and accused by his friends, Job kept his faith and integrity throughout his trials. He rebuked me for my comments, but he did not sin. How could he keep trusting in God after all that we had experienced?! Job questioned, but respected God. He challenged God, yet submitted to Him. Job wailed in pain, but trusted God for help. I did none of that. How I wish I had turned to God with my grief and anger like my husband did. Check out my husband’s book of Job to read the laments of his heart as he expressed them to God. Yes, Job maintained his integrity. Regretfully, I did not.

Dear friend, please trust God no matter what you are going through. Know that our God is big enough to handle any anger and emotions you feel. God can help you deal with the trials of your life. When life hurts and death seems like a better option, God can teach you to trust and submit to Him. Our God may not answer with specific reasons why, but He will guide and sustain you through everything you experience. Although I learned these lessons late, I share my story—and what I learned from my husband—with you.

By watching my husband Job deal with his suffering, I learned so much about God. Yes, my man of God stayed married to me, and later we had ten more children. I did not deserve God’s favor. Like He did for Job’s friends, God blessed me because of my husband’s faithfulness to God. How I wish I had trusted God, like my husband Job did, to help me through grief and suffering! My bitterness and resentment against God consumed me. I pray that you would avoid my sinful path and instead turn toward God during sorrow and trials.

Praying for our dear Lord to teach you through my mistakes.
Job’s wife

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: bitterness, faith, grief, integrity, mother, parenting, suffering, trust

June 26, 2023 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Jochebed: Obedience over Fear

Dear Modern Mama,
Obeying God challenged me to face my fears about raising kids in our situation. Both Levites, my husband Amram and I (Jochebed) lived in Egypt with all the other Israelites. The Egyptians had long forgotten God’s miraculous famine relief administered through our forefather Joseph. A new pharaoh, the reigning Egyptian king, felt threatened by our numbers and forced us into slave labor. I worked the fields with the women, and my dear Amram laid bricks with the men. Hebrew children had to fend for themselves as their parents worked for the Egyptian slavemasters. Amram and I feared bringing children into this world; our people had been slaves for generations. God’s covenant promises of a nation and land of our own seemed impossible. Sometimes I found it difficult to obey God and trust His care for our family.

Into that life of slave labor, I again became pregnant. My two other children, Aaron and Miriam, would soon be old enough to start in the fields. The pharaoh begrudged our people’s strength and population growth. He ordered the midwives to kill the Hebrew boys they delivered, but, thankfully, they refused. Into this scary world, my baby boy was born. My beautiful boy, born healthy and whole! But then the pharaoh ordered the Egyptians to kill newborn Hebrew boys by throwing them into the Nile River. They drowned innocent baby boys! So much sorrow and wailing!

As parents, we all think our children are the best and most special. Of course we do! We have the closest perspective of our kids and see them through the lens of our love and support. We are grateful for these precious gifts from God. I felt the same way about all my children, including my newest baby. God gave Amram and me a plan to save our baby boy. Since the Hebrew women avoided the Nile, we thought the Egyptians would never look there for Hebrew boys. I wove a basket to float my baby on the water, hiding him in the bulrushes along the Nile. While Amram and I worked during the day, Miriam watched her baby brother. I feared seeing them both drowned in the Nile! All I could do was trust God and obey what He had asked us to do.

Photo by Mindy Olson P on Unsplash

I remember the day Miriam ran to the field, screaming for me to come to the river. I feared that my baby was dead, but as we ran, Miriam told me that pharaoh’s daughter had discovered our baby and had compassion. Miriam told me that the woman wanted to save him, but I feared that this was a plot to kill all of us. When we got to the river, Miriam’s words proved true. The pharaoh’s daughter wanted to save my Hebrew son! Would you believe she paid me to nurse my own baby?!

After purposefully floating my baby boy on the river of death, that became the site of God’s miracle of redemption when pharaoh’s daughter pulled my son out of the water. Actually, that’s what she named my boy—Moses—which means “drawn out of the water.” (Read about it in Exodus 1 and 2.) After I weaned Moses, I brought him back to the royal household to be raised as pharaoh’s daughter’s own son. Sometimes I feared, questioned, and ached in sorrow over not raising my boy.

Thankfully, God helped me push past my fear to obey Him and to trust that He would take care of Moses. I learned that obeying God is worthwhile, even at the risk of my life and my children’s lives. Not until after my death did I find out what God did through Moses—and all of my children, as recorded in the rest of the Torah. God even called my kids leaders (Micah 6:4)!

To our people in Egypt, it seemed like God had forgotten us in our slavery and sorrow. I focused on saving my baby from drowning, but God had a bigger plan. My Lord God rescued Moses from death and into God’s plan to bring life, redemption, and freedom to all of His people.

May God help you with the incredible children He has entrusted to you. May He teach you to obey Him even when you fear for your family, when you do not understand God’s plan, and when you do not know the outcome.

Sending you encouragement from the river of life,
Jochebed

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: moses, obedience, parenting, slavery, trust

May 27, 2023 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Sarah: Trusting God through Travels and Trials

Dear Modern Mama,

Abram and I began our lives together in Ur of the Chaldeans (on your map, southern Iraq). I had no idea what adventures, travels, and trials awaited us in our marriage! From Ur, we traveled to Haran (i.e. southeastern Turkey), where God spoke to my husband. That is where our journey of trusting God began.

Abram changed after God spoke those prophetic words. God promised to make my husband into a great nation, bless him, and make him a blessing to others. God prophesied that Abram’s name would be great, and all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. All that for my husband, the nomad! I dreaded moving again, but I agreed with Abraham’s commitment to follow God’s directions. This time, we traveled to Canaan (i.e. Israel and Jordan). All that travel left us exhausted: no roads, no vehicles, and, imagine this, no air conditioning!

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Our arrival in Canaan came during the big famine, so Abram decided to take us to Egypt. His big scheme in Egypt made me uncomfortable from the beginning. Abram feared that because of my beauty, he risked being killed. He chose to lie to everyone, telling them that I was his sister, not his wife. That did not help me because, separated from my dear husband, I ended up in a harem not knowing if Abram stayed safe. That scared me! Suddenly plagues affected Pharaoh and his household. (Note: the Exodus plagues happened hundreds of years later when our descendants were Egyptian slaves.) When Pharaoh confronted Abram about the awful plagues, Abram told the truth about me. I thought Abram and I would both be killed, but thankfully, we got sent away and we returned to Canaan.

Children are everything in my culture: joy, purpose, household help, work force, retirement plan, status symbol, and more. Infertility bothered me so much in those first decades, even though traveling seemed easier without the challenges of parenting. God’s covenant with Abram promised as many descendants as the stars in the sky. I ached to bear children those first decades of waiting, but I aged-out of having a family. I assumed that Abram’s nation would not happen through me, because I never got pregnant. In Genesis 16-18, you will read how trusting God was hard for me: I doubted God’s plan and made sinful choices, trying to find a way to bring children into our family. After I realized my sin, I doubted that God loved me enough to give me the privilege of bearing and raising children.

Please read my story for yourself and learn the lessons that took me almost a century to understand: God is faithful and He always fulfills His plans. Expect challenges along the way as God builds your faith and teaches you to trust Him. For me, trusting God involved travels along dusty roads, multiple international moves, and almost three-quarters of a century of infertility. Abram and I experienced tent living, an Egyptian king’s hospitality, and then expulsion from Egypt. I often felt both frustration while submitting to my husband and resentment at my infertility.

One important truth that I learned: God’s perspective is very different—much bigger and grander—than my personal viewpoint. Please learn this from my experience: do not doubt or underestimate God’s plans. I admit that my response to God’s plan included disobedience, disbelief, and laughter. God called my husband into a covenant for all generations and times. God also changed our names to Abraham and Sarah, which confirmed the prophecy that we would be the father and mother of nations. When the angels visited, my own ears heard the prophecy that Abraham and I would become parents. I laughed and doubted, but it happened within a year, just as God promised.

The miracle of Isaac’s birth meant that I had a part in the covenant. These events filled my heart more than I could have hoped or imagined. Following God is not boring or fruitless, but neither is it easy or predictable. God’s plan made my suffering worthwhile. Keep trusting God through whatever travels and trials happen in your life. Don’t be like me and spend decades disbelieving God’s plan! Obeying God is the best and most fulfilling adventure you can pursue.

Love to you from this ancient mama,
Sarah

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Abraham, covenant, infertility, Isaac, mother, parenting, trials, trust

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Recent Writing

  • A Sadiversary Grief Pilgrimage
  • Eve: My Sin and God’s Mercy
  • Job’s Wife on Grief and Bitterness
  • Jochebed: Obedience over Fear
  • Sarah: Trusting God through Travels and Trials

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