Woterstorffs Reflections in Lament for a Son (Essay Sample)

Reflection Paper: Woterstorff’s Reflections in Lament for a Son
Name
Institution
Instructor
Course
Date
Woterstorff’s Reflections in Lament for a Son
Lament for a Son is a book that was written by Nicholas Wolterstorff’s a philosopher at Yale grieving his son who died in an accident while climbing a mountain in Austria in 1983. The reflections of Wolterstorff’s are intensely personal though he published it to help others who join others in morning. In this book he tries to ask himself questions that people ask themselves they face great challenges and at the same time offer easy questions to those questions. In this book, Wolterstorff’s expresses his feelings and longing for his son and how the death of his son has changed him by growing in strength and wisdom and how he can exchange those changes for his son in return.
Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief
Kubler-Ross came up with a basis for understanding how the loss of a loved one affects human life. Kubler-Ross having attended to clients with terminal illnesses death became evident to her, she made observations and her experience with dying patients she developed a model of five stages to explain grief (Videbeck, 2011). The five stage models include; firstly is denial, which is refusal of the death due to shock and disbelief. It is the first stage and it takes a lot of time even lasting throughout the process. This stage acts as a shield to cushion the the grieving individual by giving him or her the courage to assume that it is not really happening. By doing this, the individual is able to recollect his affections and feelings and move on. However, other individuals lack the appropriate adjustments to move on and can stay in this stage for long.
The second stage is anger; the grieving individual would tend to ask, why is this happening and not to someone else? (Nagarsheth, 2010). The individual at this stage has rage, envy and resentment. This stage is the most difficulty stage for those people mourning their beloved ones. The only way overcome this stage is to turn the angry feelings into something positive and try to manage the anger with time and it will cease. The third stage is bargaining where the grieving individual will try all manner of ways and try to call off certain events through bargaining by asking God or luck for more to delay the death or loss. During this stage, the individual tries all ways to make the suffering less severe. The fourth stage of grief is depression, which according to (Videbeck, 2011) results in realization of the death of a loved one. This stage prepares an individual to move to the last stage of acceptance anger and unhappiness may still be present in this stage. This stage has two different types’ namely reactive depression and preparatory depression. At this stage there is too much crying and withdrawal from other people as the grieving people come to terms with the loss The fifth and the last stage of depression is acceptance, at this stage all other feelings from previous stages diminish and the grieving individual admit the truth of the loss. The struggle is over and what is most required is an understanding and accepting of the bereaved family and friends, the truth becomes a permanent truth and the affected family has to live with the reality (Veach, LeRoy and Bartels 2010)
How Does Wolterstorff Find Joy After His Loss?
Wolterstorff found joy after the death of his adult son by believing that we find light in darkness and there is life after death. The death of his dear son gave him the strength to make reflections of life. The loss of his son made him realize that God Himself is not a God of the sufferers but he suffers and that with God no temptation is too hard to overcome. Woterstorff’s believed that through our tears we find the tears of God, which means total comfort and joy.
The Meaning and Significance of Death In Light Of the Christian Narrative