Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ Death and Dying
Yesterday I “sovereignly stumbled” across a blog post by Kit Hinkle at her site, A Widow’s Might. The particular post was on A Roadmap Out from Grief.
Toward the end of the post she quoted from some of my work on grief in God’s Healing for Life’s Losses.
As many of you know, in the book I compare and contrast the “five stages” of grief studied by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her works on death and dying with a biblical journey of finding God’s healing hope.
Missing Hope
Kit Hinkle researched how Kubler-Ross handled her own death and dying. It’s a sad portrait.
Hinkle discovered that:
“For one who wrote so extensively on dying and death, Kübler-Ross’s transition from this life was not a smooth one. She retired to Arizona after series of strokes in 1995 left her partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
“I am like a plane that has left the gate and not taken off,” she said, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. “I would rather go back to the gate or fly away.”
There is something that Kubler-Ross was missing in her model.
Hope.
Missing Christ
Kit’s research also uncovered that:
“When incapacitated by a series of strokes in 1995, Kubler-Ross did nothing but sit at home in Arizona “smoking cigarettes, watching TV, and waiting to die.” She said: ‘I don’t give a hoot about the afterlife, reincarnation, or anything. I’m finished, and I’m not coming back.’”
No wonder her “stages” of grief fall empty.
Her model was empty of Christ. Empty of His resurrection. Of His resurrection power. Of His promise of our future resurrection.
The most brilliant researcher on death and dying that the past generation knew—Elizabeth Kubler-Ross—never found what she was looking for, longing for.
As you grieve…whatever life loss…don’t grieve without hope. Don’t grieve without Christ.
The Rest of the Story
For a biblical model of grieving…with hope…with Christ, read the aptly titled A Biblical Model of Grieving.
Join the Conversation
Why do you think we’re so tempted to follow the “world’s way” when its own practitioners end up feeling like, “I am like a plane that has left the gate and not taken off”?
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