Season 6 | Episode 95: Persisting Through Grief with J.S. Park

How do we navigate grief ourselves and with others? Co-hosts Patricia Taylor and Alissa Molina have a conversation with J.S. Park, who is a teaching pastor, writer, and interfaith hospital chaplain about persisting through grief and the ministry of presence.

In this episode, we:

• Discuss the vulnerability of sharing our grief, how it can open us to being wounded or experiencing healing
• Define the role of a chaplain and the experience of vicarious grief
• Talk about how those in crisis can question whether or not they are allowed to grieve and where that shame of grief comes from
• Cover what it means to bypass someone’s pain and our instinct to want to problem solve
• Ask about the role of the church in navigating grief, pointing out how believers can often mishandle it through spiritual bypassing
• Consider how we can push back on the need to “fix” a person’s grief immediately and the significance of just showing up instead
• Talk about how letting grief in can offer us a fuller and more human experience, connecting us to those who went before us 

Join us for this rich conversation about the experience of grief and how we can grieve well, for the sake of ourselves and others. We hope you find permission and safety to grieve, whatever you’re going through. 

News, Notes, and Links:

• Follow along with J.S. Park on Instagram and Twitter, and be sure to pick up a copy of his book.
• Read this Instagram post from September 4 that we referenced.
• Support more conversations like this on Upside Down Podcast! Please visit us, where you can pledge a few dollars of monthly support to help us pay our bills and keep the conversations going.
• Learn more at Upside Down Podcast.
• We’re on Instagram, too. You can find us individually at @patricia_a_taylor, @kayla_craig, @from_here_sessions, and @lindsy.wallace.
• Join the Upside Down Together listener group on Facebook!