For my morning devotions this past year I have been reading a collection of letters John Newton wrote to John Ryland Jr. entitled Wise Counsel (Banner, 2009) Of course Newton was the former slave trader turned pastor and theologian and Ryland was a young minister whom Newton adopted as a spiritual son. While there are many gems I could share from this book, I will just pass along one that I read this morning because it addresses a need I have recently met in pastoral counseling. After some kind of loss, young Ryland was grieving and apparently shared with Newton that it had become nearly debilitating. Newton has this straightforward challenge for Ryland that some might find insensitive but I find as a pastor is often needed:

There is something fascinating in grief: though we feel it hurts our peace, and may know, that when it is great, and long continued, it threatens the very root of our usefulness, we are apt to indulge it, and to brood over sorrow till it gives a tincture to the whole frame of our spirits, and, perhaps makes a lodgment in us, too deep to be removed, We say, indeed, the Lord is wise and good, and does all things well; and, for our principles’ sake, we avoid positive complaint; but folded hands, downcast looks, and reiterated sights, are deemed very allowable, as they doubtless are for a time; but, if for a long time, they become ensnaring and injurious …. Dally no more with grief; try to cut short all recollections that feed the anguish of the mind. Your taper is extinguished but you have the Sun still with you” (Letter 40).