Loss of things can include loss of job, financial security, and health. It also can include grieving over the loss of a role. For example, a mother whose last child goes off to college may experience an emptiness because she no longer has someone for whom to care. We also can grieve over the loss of something we hoped would happen when we recognize that it won't. This might occur when someone else is chosen for a promotion that we felt certain we would be given.
Christians surely grieve the loss of loved ones, just as nonbelievers do.
Our faith gives us added resources to cope with loss and disappointment, so that we need not grieve as those who have no hope . We need not grieve as someone would who believes that his or her loved one has ceased to exist, and that he or she will soon do also. We may still grieve, however, because we deeply miss the presence of someone we love, even though our parting is temporary. Animal researchers first identified this condition in animal experiments where they would place dogs in cages that lacked any means of escape and would send a mild electrical current through the floor. At first the dogs would try to escape, but eventually they would simply cower in the corner when the electric current was on.