A Light for My Path

About three years ago I wrote a post titled Crying. I talked about how, for me, crying is cathartic. I am an emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I cry easily. Joyful moments can bring tears to my eyes just as much as sad moments. Even after more than thirty years together my crying makes my husband uncomfortable. It hurts him to see me sad. I don’t want him to be sad or upset either. But it’s hard for him to accept that weeping is a way to cleanse my soul and calm my heart.

In Jeremiah 9:17-18 the Lord says to the prophet Jeremiah:

Then let the mourning women come up and cry out; let the eyes run down with tears and the eyelids flow with water. Let them cry out to the Lord from their pain.

This verse is in the context of God telling Jeremiah what the Israelites should expect as punishment for their sins. War and exile are coming. People will die and the women should prepare to mourn. In verse 20, God even says to the women that they need to “teach their daughters how to wail and to teach each other a lament.”

Why is this specifically directed to the women? In my opinion, it’s not because women are weak and unable to do anything other than collapse on a couch and weep. In Old Testament times women had a lot of hard physical work to do. They had to be tough and resilient. Some of them were downright warrior-like. Remember Jael who drove a tent peg through Sisera’s temple?

But even strong women need to get their emotions out. We need to weep, wail, cry out to God. And, yes, we need to sometimes punch a bag, kick a ball, throw rocks in the creek, or pound a nail (preferably not into someone’s head).

The thing is, we need to also remember to take these emotions to God. “Let them cry out to the Lord from their pain.” God knew pain was coming. So, He wanted the women of Israel to remember what to do with their pain and grief. And to teach their daughters what to do. Weep, wail, that’s okay. Sing songs of bereavement (laments). Get your emotions out and give them to God.

Ecclesiastes 7:3 states: “Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made glad.” King Solomon, the wisest man said to ever have lived, is believed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes. Most Biblical scholars believe that what he meant in this verse is that sorrow (sadness, grief, lament) causes us to reflect and think on the meaning of life in a deeper way than happiness and laughter do. If we bring our mourning, and all the related emotions that go with it, to God, He will give us comfort. He will make our hearts glad. Not necessarily happy. Not laugh-out-loud gleeful. He will give our hearts a refining, eternal inner joy.

Doesn’t that make you glad?

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Laura