7 Christian Movies About Grief and Loss to Help Deal With it

 

Our family has been through a lot in recent years. We are foster parents, and we adopted teenagers that we had fostered.

On top of that, my mother passed away and she had been living with us. Each member of our family faced the family tragedy in a different way.

It was a time of despair, and the grieving process affected us each differently. I know that I can trust God’s plan and know that his gift of peace is waiting for us.

I have seen firsthand that one of the ways we can help our family through a hard time is by watching a faith-based drama with a theme of grief.

The Holy Spirit can use the stories of others to help us with our emotional responses. Here are some of the best Christian movies that talk about grief and loss.

 

Discarded Things

I worked for five years with an organization that helped teenagers who were abandoned by the community. No one could see a future for them.

If no one else could see a future for them, then how could they see a future for themselves?

But what I saw was when people believed in them, they started to believe in themselves, and then big things happened.

One of those young girls is now married to a pastor and working in full-time ministry herself.

The movie Discarded Things shares the stories of young people who had no hope for a future. When tragedy strikes and Grace suddenly loses her husband she does not know how to deal with the grief.

She finds herself turning to substance abuse to cope. This leads to her losing her job. So, the distress of job loss is added to the pain.

But that leads her to find work at a Christian recovery center. At the center, she finds a group of teens who don’t believe in second chances.

But she finds a way to help them believe in themselves.

 

Soul surfer

This movie is a family favorite.  I remember when I heard on the news about a young girl who was surfing again after losing her arm in a shark attack.

But it was years later that I was able to get the full story and see it on the big screen. I brought my daughters to see the movie.

I wanted my daughters to know that no matter what they lost in life they could always recover. God will never leave us nor forsake us.

When we see the true events of a story of hope we can be inspired. The lead roles are played by AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany Hamilton, and Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt play her parents.

This is a movie that inspired me to never give up. The main Characters in this movie all deal with loss.

The loss of dreams, the loss of abilities, and the loss of hope. But once Bethany looks outside of herself, she finds new perspectives in life.

But Jesus is the Altamonte hope. And in this movie, you are going to find important truths you can apply to your own life.

When we see a movie that tells the true story of empowered women who have overcome great tragedy then we can find hope in their example.

 

New Hope

I was a pastor’s kid, and I moved a lot growing up. My Dad was trying to figure out his life when I was in high school so he took a few different churches.

That led me to attend five different high schools in a four-year time span. I understand the grief of losing friends, and community and having to restart life over and over.

While the movie New Hope deals with the grief of a family who lost a son, I understand the story of grief that is the underlying story in this film.

In the Movie New Hope Mike is the pastor’s kid who has to start the last year of high school at a new school. He joins a basketball team and meets an angry boy named Lucas.

While Mike is dealing with the grief of missing his old school and life, and Lucas is dealing with the loss of his brother Chase.

We see the different emotional responses to deep depression. We all go through a range of human emotions during hard times.

This is a movie that explores that. We all see how the Church Community can help when we are willing, to be honest and love the ones that are hard to love.

 

Lose to Gain

One of the first quotes I memorized as a child was “What does it gain a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”

Lose to Gain begins with research in which athletes are offered a question. Would you take a drug that guaranteed a gold medal but killed you for five years?

And the majority of the athletes stated they would accept it. What does this imply? We would be willing to give up our lives if we could have what we wanted.

Billy Graham's film follows professional skateboarder Brian Sumner, comedian Michael Jr., and rising professional Shannon Culpepper.

Each of these people had a distinct desire. Some wished for success, laughter, or even love. Each lived a life that fulfilled their goals until it all came crashing down. They discovered their lives changed forever when they met Jesus.

He was lasting, real, and eternal. Each particular situation was different, but each had hope when they met Jesus. This is a great film to show to your youth group.

 

Thorns

If you are looking for a short film to watch with your small group or youth group, this is a great option.

Losing a child has to be the most difficult mourning experience anyone could go through. In the film Game of Thrones, we witness Catherine, who has recently lost a child.

She attends a little flower show and meets a couple who collect thrones devoid of roses. She discovers that unconditional love and faith are available to anybody who believes in God.

When we believe in God's healing power, we may overcome grief.  We can walk through the stages of grief in our own way and see the love of God at work in our own lives.

"Rather than complaining that roses have thorns, let us be grateful that thorns have roses."

 

Break Every Chain

My daughter’s boyfriend is in the process of becoming a police officer. He is in training now. So I have been watching movies about the stressful life a cop family has to deal with.

I Came across this true story of a police officer's battle with alcoholism, depression, and devastating loss; and the true story of how God changed his life forever.

This is a movie starring Dean Cain. It is a great movie that you will not want to miss. In this movie we see a man who is drowning in the depths of depression and sadness, burning with anger, and chained down by alcoholism.

We see the loss of a parent, the many death scenes he sees in the line of duty, and then the death of his own son.

Jonathan has to find a path back to his life. And he finds that path in Jesus Christ.

This is not a movie for young children, and the movie deals with the topic of suicide. This is a hard movie to watch, but I recommend it.

I think we all need to know the hardships that the police force goes through in their day-to-day lives.

 

Broken Road

I first watched the Broken Road as part of our family movie night. Pizza, chips, pops, and my children all cuddled on the couch together watching the story of a woman’s life falling apart in front of our eyes.

It starts when her husband is killed in action, and then she struggles to keep her life together. She loses her home and walks away from all her support systems.

She doesn’t want help from family, the church, or even her lifelong friends. But what she learns is that God wants to help us.

He wants to walk the broken road with us.