Present Comfort was written to offer encouragement to those who grieve, and insight to those who desire to share in the heart and language of grief.

The Study Guide edition of Present Comfort is intended for both individual and group study. It includes Suggestions for Individual Study, Suggestions for Group Study, Guidelines for Group Study, and Suggestions for Group Study Leaders.

Within the Study Guide, there are two separate books. Each book offers a different content option. Each is designed to be used as a four-to-six-week course of study.

In Book 1, Strength for Today, twenty-five meditations reflect on many of the complicated, more complex issues of modern grief and identify many of the questions that often arise from the devastation of traumatic loss. Topics include collective grief, collateral grief, survivor torment, outcast grief, troubled grief, and the faith of grief, to name only a few.

In Book 2, Hope for Tomorrow, twenty-five meditations suggest the way forward through grief toward hope and new life. Topics include compassion, waiting, reconciliation, restoration, and the gifts of grief.

Each meditation is followed by additional thoughts for Reflection, words of Encouragement, and questions to inspire meditation and sharing on Comfort and Hope. In both editions of Present Comfort, Scripture is the standard of spiritual perspective that provides understanding and direction through grief.

Whether you are on a personal journey through grief or reading for your own understanding of the experience of grief and the mystery of life and death, the hope of Present Comfort is that it will inspire within you a deeper sense of the presence of God in every circumstance of life and draw you into a closer personal relationship with the living God of all comfort and love.

As you read and study Present Comfort, may you experience in each whisper of comfort the life-renewing peace that is the promise of our faith.