Hope with Abandon

Because my father died while I was quite young, adults around me were often open about their experiences of grief. The common theme seemed to be "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." You never move on; you never "get over it." So when my husband was killed very suddenly and unexpectedly, the hopes and dreams I had held for my life evaporated immediately. I had seen the way the world grieved, and I wanted nothing to do with that. I wanted to learn what God offers to me in grief that changes my experience of my deepest loss. This is the story of my journey through the valley of death, to a place the Lord would bring me. A place of hope without limits, hope without reserve. A place where He taught me to live in hope with abandon.

-- Natasha Landphair Buchanan