Jesus Wept

I often hear from my male friends that they do not cry. This makes me sad. There are a lot of reasons men don't cry and they are discussed in a book entitled Real Boys by William Pollack. Pressures come from our society, the media, our family, and from within.

I just want to point out that "Jesus wept," and he was the perfect man. Here are some scriptures.

"Jesus wept over his friend Lazarus." (John 11:35)

"And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it." (Luke 19: 41)

"During the day of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death." (Hebrews 5:7)

When I was fourteen years old my younger brother was electrocuted. As the family gathered together, I heard someone say, "Isn't Susan being a brave little soldier." I made a decision at this point to be stoic when faced with tragedy. It took me five years to have a good cry over losing my beloved daughter Kathy.

I write this to encourage crying as a catharsis. It is not a cure for grief, but it eases the pain for a short while and prevents us from getting angry or doing something else that is not helpful.

"Tears are a river that take you somewhere. Weeping creates a river around the boat that carries your soul life. Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off the dry ground, carrying it down river to someplace new, someplace better. There are oceans of tears men and women have never cried, for they have been trained to carry mother’s and father’s secrets to the grave. Crying has been considered quite dangerous, for it loosens the locks and bolts on the secrets he or she bears. But in truth, for the sake of our wild soul, it is better to cry. Tears are the beginning of initiation into the Scar Clan, that timeless tribe of men and women of all colors, all nations, all languages, who down through the ages have lived through a great something, and yet who stood proud." (Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who run With the Wolves.)