Coping with Grief

I was invited to do an interview with a lady from my church who has an online talk show on the topic of "Coping with Grief". Have a listen and I trust it will help you and/or someone you know during these unprecedented times of loss and grief.

What Will We Give Him?

It was the God of creation who came down to earth.

He touched the womb of Mary and she gave birth

To Jesus, the Name high and above all,

And what did man give Him, he gave Him a stall.

His eyes when they opened saw animals all around.

No royal reception, of trumpets or cymbals there was not a sound.

The King of Kings had only the hay on which to lay His head.

Would we have been there in His stead?

It was the God of creation who rode through the city gate.

The people gathered to greet Him, to make Him their king they could not wait.

Their shouts of adoration would quickly pass

And in exchange, what would man give Him, he gave Him a cross.

His eyes when they opened saw people all around

Laughing and jeering as the King hung with hands and feet bound,

To a cross that He was not deserving of.

 Would we have hung there out of love?

It was the God of creation who died at Calvary,

And why did He do it, out of love for you and me.

The Perfect One poured on Himself man’s sin and doom,

And what did man give Him, he gave Him a borrowed tomb.

His eyes when they opened saw emptiness all around.

The stone rolled away and the Light of the World walked forth unbound.

To show Himself alive to His followers this He sought.

Would we have received Him as we ought?

It was the God of creation who ascended on high.

The Risen Lord had fulfilled all that had been prophesied.

His victory over death has made new life available to us all.

And what does man give Him, a rejection of His call.

His eyes as they are opened see people all around,

Walking blindly on life’s treadmill, where no peace is to be found.

The Bread of Life, His nail-pierced hands He does impart.

And what can man give Him, he can give Him his heart.

By Kathy Gooch

Shadows - You Felt My Pain

“‘Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’” These are the words God speaks to His people in Isaiah 40:1. These are the words that were running through my mind last year and into this year with the pandemic touching so many people’s lives. I got Covid mid December and was hospitalized for four days. After returning home, it took another month to fully recover. One of my mums here in the Mother City of Cape Town contracted Covid, was hospitalized and due to other health issues, her 80 year old body didn’t recover and she passed away. I’m facilitating a Bereavement journey course and quite a few are attending because their loved ones have died of Covid or other reasons. There are so many who need those words spoken to them, “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”

Whether it is the grieving, the hurt, the persecuted, the marginalized, or the ostracized, Daddy God is wanting us to know that He has not abandoned us, but rather, is ever present in our times of need.

In 1996, I wrote a song that referred to an event I had experienced when I was around 17 years old. I was 33 when I wrote it and although I had come to know healing and freedom, Daddy God wanted to reassure me that He was present at that moment in time. As a good, good Heavenly Father He wanted to bring me comfort.

I had left that song in the archives and in 2019 He reminded me of it and prompted me to take it out of the archives and revise it. The recurring theme after my Dad’s passing in December 2017 was “Wounded Healers” and that is what He was shaping me into even during the release of the play I spearheaded, and wrote many of the pieces for, called “The Three Cries” staged in 2018. Here is the facebook link if you want to watch excerpts of that production: https://www.facebook.com/The-Three-Cries-213175006062820/videos/?ref=page_internal

In revising the song, I received the assistance of Kumbee Tjirimuje, a young man from Namibia, who attends the church of which I’m on the Pastoral team, who also sings with me. We recorded the song the end of 2019 and Serge Lomago from the DRC on guitar and Bekithemba Mbambo from Zimbabwe on keyboard also from my church added the instrumentals.

It’s a song where God is using my experience of feeling like a shadow and forgotten, and now after the healing He has brought me, I can tell others that they aren’t a shadow anymore. Daddy God sees them in their most pained place, and through His Son Jesus, in His most pained place, feels their pain.  The good news is that He doesn't leave us in our pain. Because of His resurrection from the dead, He is the only One who can bring healing to our wounded, troubled hearts.

I believe Daddy God wants to use this song to minister to the multitudes that are hurting and even wondering where Jesus is in their pain. 

Please have a listen and pass it onto anyone you think needs to know they are not a shadow anymore. 

It’s called “Shadows - You Felt My Pain” by Kathy Gooch. Here’s the link on Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/kathy-gooch/shadows-you-felt-my-pain

What are you using the breath in your body for?

Although many in the world would consider 2020 as a “write-off” year, I would consider it a “put-right” year. I just recorded a sermon that my church will use online December 27th (Here is the link if you’re interested in watching:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz7sblbF65s) , where I share about God’s kingdom being a “right-side up” kingdom culture and this world being an “upside-down” culture. It’s about how we get enamoured with “Rags to Riches” stories when our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, lived out a “Riches to Rags” story (Read Philippians 2).

 

I believe 2020 has been a year that was necessary in order to put humankind in its place and to remind us, as it says in Isaiah 40 – “Behold the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing… It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in”(Verses 15 & 22). In summary, “God is God and we are not and it’s just as well!”

 

It’s a year where not just my plans had to be disregarded and discarded, but the entire worlds. It’s a year where opportunities to trust Daddy God were handed on a silver platter and, if you had eyes to see; you would see them as a gift. It’s a year where the breath in our bodies has become more noticeable than ever and not something to be taken for granted, just as the breath in the next person’s body isn’t to be taken for granted either.

 

Life is short. Life is precious. But for those of us who have received the precious gift of Jesus’ life in our spirits, we know that we are merely visitors on this earth and eagerly awaiting our Messiah to call us home. Whilst this is true, we don’t want to leave empty-handed, but take with us as many souls as possible. Thus we pray for the salvation of family, friends, neighbours, nations. We help those who have lost loved ones to know that this is not the end of their story. May this be what we use this gift of breath in our bodies for. 

I am much more aware of the breath in my body after getting Covid 19 mid December and having to be hospitalized for four days. Still recuperating at home and very grateful for those praying for me.

May we become more and more aware of the unique part that God has placed us on this earth to play. May we use this precious breath in our bodies to manifest His “right-side up” kingdom culture to His honour and glory.