Hope Beyond Your Tears: Experiencing Christ's Love
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About this ebook
In the face of grief and loss, have you ever wondered how you will ever move beyond your tears and emptiness? Is it possible to find purpose and meaning after you have suffered the death of a loved one?
"The risen Christ meets us in our tears." With these gentle words Trevor Hudson invites you to enter the deeply moving Gospel story of the garden encounter between the risen Christ and Mary Magdalene on the first Easter morning.
In the Foreword, Dallas Willard describes Trevor Hudson as "remarkably gifted at unrolling the contents of a scriptural story right into the midst of your life. He is an open soul…who is able to open other souls."
Through the meditations in this book, you will discover how Christ's healing love can help you find the hope that lies on the other side of your brokenness and grief.
Each of the 10 brief chapters includes a focal scripture and meditation, a memory verse and breath prayer, and suggestions for further reflection.
An excellent resource for a Lenten study, a grief support group, or anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Christ's resurrection and how it relates to their life.
Trevor Hudson
Trevor Hudson has been in the Methodist ministry for the past thirty odd years, spending most of this time in and around Johannesburg, South Africa. Presently he is part of the pastoral team at Northfield Methodist Church in Benoni where he preaches and teaches on a weekly basis. He has written nine books, including A Mile in My Shoes and Listening to the Groans, which have recently been published in the U.S. Much of his ministry has been shaped by two passions: helping ordinary people experience the transforming presence and power of Jesus in their everyday lives and helping people build the kind of local faith community which seeks to take seriously the suffering of those around them. His interests include watching sports, walking and running, discovering new places, reading and writing.
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Reviews for Hope Beyond Your Tears
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very helpful, many suggestions to help you find answers we you grieve.
Book preview
Hope Beyond Your Tears - Trevor Hudson
HOPE BEYOND YOUR TEARS: Experiencing Christ’s Healing Love
Copyright © 2012 by Trevor Hudson.
All rights reserved.
Originally published in 2004 by Struik Christian Media (Pty) Ltd. under the
title Touched by Resurrection Love. Published by permission of Three Streams
Publishers © Struik Christian Media and Trevor Hudson.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, write Upper Room Books, 1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212.
Upper Room Books® website: upperroombooks.com
UPPER ROOM®, UPPER ROOM BOOKS®, and design logos are trademarks owned by The Upper Room®, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®,
NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by
permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Cover image: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Cover and interior design: Nancy Terzian, BuckinghorseDesign.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hudson, Trevor, 1951–
Hope beyond your tears : experiencing Christ’s healing love / by Trevor Hudson.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Touched by resurrection love.
ISBN 978-0-8358-1115-6 (print) — ISBN 978-0-8358-1124-8 (mobi) —
ISBN 978-0-8358-1173-6 (epub)
1. Consolation. 2. Suffering—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3.
Hope—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Hudson, Trevor, 1951– Touched
by resurrection love. II. Title.
BV4905.3.H83 2012
248.8’6—dc23
2012023883
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 Befriending Our Tears
Chapter 2 Processing Pain
Chapter 3 Weeping with Those Who Weep
Chapter 4 Experiencing Resurrection Love
Chapter 5 Turning Around
Chapter 6 Becoming a Learner of Jesus
Chapter 7 Letting Go and Letting God
Chapter 8 Giving Space to Loved Ones
Chapter 9 Sharing the Message
Chapter 10 Exploring Our Living Hope
An Outline for Small-Group Use
Acknowledgments
FOREWORD
Trevor Hudson is remarkably gifted at unrolling the contents of a scriptural story right into the midst of your life. He is an open soul—something learned through a long spiritual process in his life—who is able to open other souls. Yours and mine. This is our profound need: for our souls to be opened. To turn loose the inner bondages by which we shut ourselves in, away from others and from God. We have been hurt. There we think we are safe. There we die alone. Who can help us?
The opening of a soul comes through little cracks and progresses slowly. We are such beings as can only let go of our inner hold in response to grace—true gift, no strings. Grace gently suggests to us that good is present and coming toward us. This is perceived through a tiny crack in our armor. Could we widen that crack just a bit, get a slightly better view? Perhaps begin to let the gift enter our shell, just a little? Perhaps we could begin by spending some time quietly resting in solitude and silence.
The stories of Jesus are the primary overtures of grace in a world that knows little of true gift. We can let them in. Indeed, they are so winsome, who can keep them out once they appear? They are like raindrops and sunshine, and the flowers in our soul begin to grow. Without our knowing how, without our even intending it. We begin to find good we did not expect or hope for: here, there, in the world, in others. In ourselves, can it be? We ask, Who has done this?
And we find that Jesus himself came in with the stories. Meditation is turning to the gift of Jesus. Waiting before it. Paying attention. Letting things be what they are. Finding we have a soul. Suspecting that we are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in the world of a good God. Meditation itself proves to be a gift in retrospect. At first Mary did not know it was Jesus.
Thought he was the gardener! What we learn in meditation upon Christ is from another world but does not demand understanding at the outset, just longing from the heart. Mary had that. You probably do too. So make space for it and take this book as a guide. Just follow the instructions given by the author. Let the words wash over you. They will do the work. You can count on it.
Dallas Willard
INTRODUCTION
For just over three decades I have worked as a pastor in a local congregation. It has been a huge privilege. These years have made me deeply aware of the depth and extent of human trauma, bereavement, anxiety, and emotional pain that lies all around us and also in our hearts. Nearly everyone carries a heavy burden. Perhaps you do too. If you do, I would like to offer you these meditations on one of my favorite Easter stories—the encounter between the risen Christ and Mary Magdalene.
It is a deeply moving story of the transformation and hope that