Good Grief: Honouring the Passing of Parents - with guest Carolyn Arends

Way Stations | Conversations Along the Journey

Good Grief: Honouring the Passing of Parents

The podcast opens with Carolyn explaining her work with Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation before she and Steve swap stories, insights and songs about their recent loss of beloved parents, and the songs each wrote in the wake of their grief.

*note: to watch the video of this podcast click HERE…

Carolyn Arends is an internationally awarded singer/songwriter and author whose work has yielded 14 albums,15 top ten radio singles on the Canadian and US Christian charts, and 3 critically acclaimed books.

Carolyn holds a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Regent College. She is a regular columnist for Christianity Today and serves as an adjunct professor at ACTS Seminary, Pacific Life Bible College, and Columbia Bible College.

In addition to her busy touring and speaking schedule, Carolyn is the current Director of Education for Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation.

Carolyn lives in Surrey, BC with her husband, Mark, and their children Benjamin and Bethany.

Websites: https://www.carolynarends.com/ https://renovare.org/institute/overview

Discography and Books: https://www.carolynarends.com/releases

Articles: Stoicism Isn’t Spiritual: What Grief Taught Me About Being Fully Human by Carolyn Arends

Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold Our Bodies Down (Christianity Today) by Carolyn Arends

Songs: Videos for the songs included in this podcast can be watched independently on YouTube. Click song titles below to watch:

To Cry for You Music and Lyrics by Carolyn Arends Album: Recognition

There's a lump in my throat There's a knot in my chest I am tired to the bone But I cannot rest But it's only right To feel like I do Cause it is my honour To cry for you

All the memories come back Like the tide rolling in And the current is strong I go under again So I hold my breath What else can I do? Cause it is my honour To cry for you

Blessed are the ones who weep Cause every tear is proof Of ties that bind so strong and deep That death cannot undo

So it is my honour To cry for you

I've got more than a hunch That you're somehwere so good It'd be wrong to come back Even if you could I will see you again But until I do It is my honour To cry for you

Blessed are the ones who weep Cause every tear is proof Of ties that bind so strong and deep That death cannot undo So it is my honour To cry for you

There's a lump in my throat There's a knot in my chest But the ache in my soul Tells me I am blessed Cause when the sorrow is great The love is too And it is my honour To cry for you

I guess grief is the work That love must do So it is my honour To cry for you

In Memoriam Music and Lyrics by Steve Bell Album: Wouldn’t You Love to Know Fresh tendernesses burgeoned with the dying of my dad I love him all the more for it He lived his life for others’ gain His death, he gave away the same And I love him all the more for it This son was fiercely fashioned By his father’s dappled life The way he loved his children The way he loved his wife My dad was hardly perfect But I hardly give a rip I loved him all the more for it Not scandalized by brokenness Not scandalized by pain But Dad could not abide the curse And hellishness of shame He’d absorb another’s failures And return them as a gift We loved him all the more for it My father was a trumpeter Those days have long since passed He passed along his passion to me Eager as I was We’d sit for hours and listen To the Tijuana Brass I loved him all the more for it I tenderly remember When a beauty left me rent I was too young to consider then That love is never spent He told me pain would linger And would likely leave a dent I loved him all the more for it

My dad was a believer He believed that God is good He was certain Jesus lived To show how everybody could And that all our earthly sorrows Couldn’t be the final writ I loved him all the more for it My father was a fortress For my two sisters and I And more-so for our mom Who suffered so much of her life He taught us how to live And then he taught us how to die We loved him all the more for it Fresh tendernesses burgeoned With the dying of my dad I love him all the more for it