Faith, Hope, and Love in a Time of Loss: An Interview with Katrina Larson

In Faith, Hope, and Love in a Time of Loss, Katrina Larson offers brief, one-day-at-a-time doses of guidance and healing. Inspired by the grief of losing her mother, Larson wrestles honestly with grief and hope. Her biblical reflections will accompany and guide you through pain while pointing to God’s promises.

Katrina Larson is passionate about helping others navigate the complexities of grief and loss. When not writing, she’s chasing after her two toddlers, reading books with her husband, and making delicious lattes.

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Lexham Press: Hello Katrina. We’re so pleased that you could participate in this interview. Please share with us the story behind Faith, Hope, and Love in a Time of Loss: A 90-Day Devotional Through Grief.
Katrina Larson: A week after wedding dress shopping with my mom, she was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer. Four months later, she died. At a time when I expected our adult friendship to blossom, I instead found myself deeply grieving her absence. I wanted to find a devotional that would encourage me with stories of someone who was grieving, and instead I ended up writing one.

I had no idea where to begin when writing a grief devotional, so I decided to start with one simple, yet profound, verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13 “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” God’s faith, hope, and love is constant in both our heartbreaking and ordinary days as grievers. Inside this book are my own devastating, hopeful, and even embarrassing stories because I believe God’s love can be found in all of it. Grief can be isolating, bewildering, and even humorous at times. God does not shy away from any of it; in fact, he can be found quite close to us in every moment.

LP: What contribution do you hope to make with your book?
Larson: This devotional offers brief, one-day-at-time doses of healing and guidance. Each day includes a personal story, a Bible verse (or two), and a deeply honest prayer at the end. Writing the prayers was my favorite part because it felt very conversational and open. The words flowed out so easily and I think the readers will enjoy “borrowing” them to continue their own dialogues with God. This book does not seek easy answers, but rather, to continue the conversation with God about our grief and greatest laments.

Generic devotionals can sometimes feel impersonal or impractical for someone who has recently lost a loved one. Not only is Faith, Hope, and Love in a Time of Loss incredibly personal, it also deals with some grief specific experiences like brain fog, anticipatory grief, and people saying the “wrong thing.” Everyone experiences grief differently, but nobody is alone in the experience of grief. My hope for this book is that people read it and say, “this book really encouraged me, it’s different from any grief book I’ve read before.” and then they give it to a friend. What more could a writer ask for?

LP: Can you share a particularly surprising or enjoyable aspect that you discovered from writing your book?
Larson: When writing this book, I felt like there was something missing. I felt God nudging me to include a devotional on forgiveness. I procrastinated and left it as the last devotional I needed to write. After turning in my first draft, my editor gave me the feedback, “Can you make this more personal?” This was the last thing I wanted to do. I felt challenged to include the time my mom told me “Don’t get fat after I die,” when she was near the end of her life. One challenging aspect of grief is that you can’t resolve anything with your loved one in person anymore. I couldn’t work it out with her in real time. I thought to myself, “How can I write a devotional on forgiveness, if I’m still figuring it out? Do I really forgive her for the hurtful things she said when she was dying?” You’ll have to read the book to find out what I decided to do, but I very quickly learned that forgiveness is much easier when it’s an abstract idea and much more difficult when it’s personal.

LP: It’s been inspiring to learn the background for your book. Let’s end on a light-hearted note and tell us something about yourself that only your friends or family would know.
Larson: Something surprising about me is that I taught myself how to walk on stilts as a child. I haven’t tried in a few years, so I’m not 100% confident it’s a skill I still have, but it’s fun to have done something a lot of people haven’t tried. The funny part is that I’m actually quite afraid of heights, but I like a good challenge, I guess 🙂