A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Esther Mcllveen is a free-lance writer living in Richmond, B.C.
Tears for many people are both an enigma and a personal embarrassment. This is true for Karen, who wrote in a letter, “I don’t share myself, for tears are so close to the surface.” June, a well-spoken English lady confessed, “Whenever I read the Scriptures I weep copiously – this keeps me from reading in public.” An Anglican minister found that tears accompanied his preaching and didn’t know how to explain the phenomenon. When our daughter was quite young, certain classical pieces of music moved her to tears. People weep for many reasons.
One reason to be more familiar with tears is that our ability not to be upset by them will benefit ourselves and others. Another reason to be informed about the nature of tears is that we will be able to discern why they are happening in order to profit from them.
Anyone who is involved in the renewing work of the Holy Spirit can’t avoid the place of tears. Tears are found in the writings of Julian, Augustine and St.Francis. Catherine Hueck Doherty in her book, Poustinia, says that when the Holy Spirit opens to you the panorama of the world and its pain, it will be tears that will be given. In The Orthodox Way, Fr. Kallistos Ware writes:
“When it is genuinely spiritual, ‘speaking with tongues’ seems to represent an act of ‘letting-go’ – the crucial moment in the breaking down of our self-trust, and its willingness to allow God to act within us. In the Orthodox tradition this act of ‘letting-go’ more often takes the form of the gift of tears.”
Fr. Maloney SJ, in Inward Stillness, records the teaching that this term is used because the waters of baptism only dealt with past sin, while the waters of our tears often relate to God’s washing away of our present sin.
David Wilkerson, in a meeting in London, England in the mid-60’s, spoke on the “ministry of tears” and asked people to come forward to receive this gift.
At a Creative Writing Workshop I gave on tears at a CFO camp, I discovered people who had the gift of tears. They realized the gift was not associated with human passions, but with the experience with God. We looked in the Scriptures at the different personalities who had wept for different reasons.
Jesus, “In the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears,” and it says they brought a response – “he was heard for his godly fear.”
Jeremiah, called the weeping prophet, wept for his nation, “O that my head were tears and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” He went on to instruct those who had been deported from their own land to “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church, wrote, “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, I write to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.”
In his defense before the Ephesian elders he stated, “You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials . . . therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.”
“As a hart longs for flowing streams,” says David, “so longs my soul for thee, O God.” Even though David knew a great intimacy with God, he wept over his personal hardships. “My tears have been my food day and night while men say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’ ”
Mary Magdalene wept tears over the death of Jesus. It seemed that not even the appearance of two angels could alleviate the flood of grief until she caught sight of her Rabboni.
Peter, who was intimidated by a maid, denied Jesus three times and afterwards wept bitterly. The man who was called a “rock” wept grievously over his failure.
Our tears never go unnoticed. “Thou has kept count of my tossings, put thou my tears in thy bottle? Are they not in thy book?” Psalm 56:8.
One evening while praying for our foster daughter’s mother, I found myself weeping although I felt no emotional tie with her. Our adopted daughter noted my prayer of travail and commented that she herself had never wept for her own mother’s salvation. I have since learned that tears are often given to an intercessor, one who stands between God and the needs of people. Perhaps tears of this nature help to soften the soil of people’s souls. They are often an indication that we are moved with compassion.
If God thinks our tears are significant enough to bottle them and holds them in such high regard, we in the church should ask for the gift of tears. Perhaps tears are not enough, but coupled with prayer we may find ourselves weeping over our city – as Jesus wept over Jerusalem – due to the hardness of heart, disunity, disparity, abuse, divorce, shedding of innocent blood, hunger and a host of other ills which exist.
God spoke tenderly to Israel when he said, “With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back.. . I will make them walk by brooks of water in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a Father to Israel.”
We have the promise in the Book of Revelation that the season for tears will be over when God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Until that time, let us use our tears for the benefit of others.
“May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” Psalm 126:5-6.