Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Contrary to conventional wisdom, it's healthful for men to shed tears. Furthermore, it's manly. And if you repress them and keep them bottled up under the surface, you damage your soul. God made you to be able to shed tears; and although it's popular to be hard-hearted, it's not being truly Christ-like.
He was the greatest Man ever to have lived (yes, that's true: the Bible clearly says that He was a man, a male, Rev. 12:5). We read that He shed tears at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35), and that he was convulsed in sobbing that last Sunday of His life when He stopped the jubilant multitude as they came over the crest of the Mount of Olives to see the gorgeous city of Jerusalem, and its famed temple before them. "And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it ..." (Luke19:41). When He prayed, His whole soul was overcome "with strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7). Those tears were in sympathy with the sufferings of other people, often as He saw the anguish that has yet to come upon the impenitent.
A wise man touched a hidden nerve of truth when he said, "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccl. 7:3). I'm not wise enough to explain that mysterious saying, but you can readily understand that a person who has known no tears of sympathy for someone else is often painfully shallow. Don't be ashamed or afraid to be like Jesus. If God wants to build a chicken coop, He doesn't need to dig a foundation; but if He builds a skyscraper, He has to. That's what He wants to build out of you; let Him do so, and "faint not" (Heb. 12:5-7).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 20, 1999.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
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