In this conversation excerpt from Episode 4204 of Day1, Rev. Grace Imathiu, Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Evanston, joins me to explore a truth we often resist: grief is holy work.

When crisis strikes, we often reach for words of comfort or rush to acts of service. Yet Rev. Imathiu reminds us that true spiritual resilience sometimes means slowing down and allowing ourselves to feel. Reflecting on C.S. Lewis’s raw account of mourning in A Grief Observed, she names the trembling, fearful sensations of sorrow as sacred evidence of life.

Transcript

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime:
When crisis strikes, what do you think spiritual resilience looks like? Spiritual resilience, like having a faith that can help us endure when things feel really uncertain.

Rev. Grace Imathiu:
That's a good question because I struggle with that, that's something I'm struggling with. I think we all are. So it might be that I've assumed that. To be a follower of Jesus, a disciple, and to be a Christian, is to be positive and happy.

And you know, but it's... Sunshine and hope and gratitude!

Rev. Grace Imathiu:
Yes, that's when you know you're a Christian. But also there's Jeremiah, and there's also Jesus standing at the grave of his, at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. There's also the "My God, my God. Why have thou forsaken me?!"

There's those also places where I'm allowed to have that, you know that that's actually an expression.

Not just allowed, but you should do it, you should grieve, grieving. Yes, we are called to grieve and lament.

Rev. Grace Imathiu:
And right? And perhaps now is the time for that as well. And maybe we need to learn how to do that. Maybe we did not learn how to do that. We don't know how to grieve, to do holy grieving, to do lamenting, maybe people die.

And even before we bury them, we're just going, you know, they're going to heaven, you know, they're in a better place. It's like, stop, stop, grieve, grieve, grieve, grieve.

Even, even, would you say even grieve, even before you jump to action? Necessarily like, I mean, yes, we need to act, but like, no, sit with it and feel it. And and there are...

Rev. Grace Imathiu:
Yes, and, and, you know, grieving. Not pleasant. Yes, it's unpleasant. It's what does C.S. Lewis talk about? But it's all important.

Rev. Grace Imathiu:
C. S. Lewis talks about that, you know, when his wife died, and talks about, No one told me that grief feels so much like fear, you know. The fluttering of the in the stomach, the it feels so much. None of us want that, we want to flight as fast as possible.

But you know what?! Three days in the grave! Sorry...

Rev. Grace Imathiu:
There are times, there are days when you got to do three days in the in the grave, or three days in the in the belly of the whale. It's okay. And sometimes, what? What did someone talk about?

How I sat with my my anger long enough, and it told me its name was grief.

When Rev. Grace Imathiu speaks about grief, she invites us to reclaim something the modern church often forgets: lament is a language of faith. In this clip, she reminds us that the Christian life is not “sunshine and hope” alone, but also the ache of Jeremiah, the tears of Jesus, and the cries of the cross.

Her call to “holy grieving” isn’t about despair—it’s about courage. To grieve faithfully is to face our pain with open eyes, trusting that God is present in every sigh and silence. As C.S. Lewis observed, grief and fear share the same heartbeat. But within that steady beating is grace—the slow, sacred work of being human in God’s presence.

For anyone navigating pain, I hope this offers permission to stop, breathe, and trust that resurrection follows even the longest Holy Saturday.

Explore Rev. Grace Imathiu’s full sermon from Episode 4204 >>>