Tears, Suffering, Sorrow, & Grief

Tears, Suffering, Sorrow, & Grief

No tears in heaven

When I was in seminary, there was a friend I had named Charles Tear. His brother’s name was Rusty Tear. Ick, rusty tears! Why would anyone name their kid that! Every time I heard his name I thought of rusty tears! Anyway, Charles once gave his testimony of how he got saved. He said the pastor once preached there would be no tears in heaven. He was so grief stricken that he went to the pastor afterwards and balling and asked why he couldn’t go to heaven? And the pastor let him know that that’s not what the verse meant, and Charles then understood how to be saved and the pastor led him in a sinner’s prayer! Whenever I hear that there will be no tears in heaven, I can’t help but think about my friend Charles Tear! So, yeah Charles and his brother Rusty were both saved and so yes, in a way, there will be Tears in heaven, so to speak.

Brother Suffer

When I was in seminary, there was a preacher, I forgot his name now, but everyone knew him as “brother suffer”! When he preached, he would talk about how it was good to suffer! But whenever he would say the word suffer, he would put a big accent on it like “SuffErrrrrrrrr”! It was sort of comical but weird at the same time. He would say things like we have it too easy these days and launch into many examples of how we should Sufffffeeeerrrrr! One example I remember was him saying that we have it too easy sitting in padded chairs and that in his day, he had to sit on trees that were split in half for pews! Wow! That couldn’t be comfortable. He would give us a history lesson on how hard he had it in his day and how that tempered him into the person he was today! And even though I don’t want to learn good and bad from the school of hard knocks like he did, I can certainly get his point on how suffering had tempered and molded him. Often these days we are all too soft and not strong at all, snowflakes really that melt at the slightest bad thing that happens. If you wanted to, not that I’m advising it, on YouTube you can see an endless list of videos of people freaking out in a temper tantrum like a toddler over the slightest of offense as if the world had ended for them! I hope none of you launch into temper tantrums like that! Perhaps some people need to SuFFFFeeer a bit to mature some!

Sorrow is good?

You know, we have all probably had sorrow in our lives. Even though sorrow is not something I wish to ever go through, the effects of it change us and somehow make us see things we might not have otherwise. Like it makes us recognize that sometimes we don’t know what we have until it’s gone. So tell those around you that you love them before it’s too late! Sorrow can also make us stronger after we have passed through the fire so to speak and the next time, perhaps a situation won’t take our heart off guard as easily. However, being careful not to let things harden our hearts, tho. If you can’t “sorrow”, then there’s something wrong with you! Even Jesus was sorrowful. One of the shortest verses in the Bible tells us how Jesus was so moved and even wept because Lazarus, Mary and Martha’s brother, had died. John 11:35 Jesus wept. In fact it was even prophesied that the Messiah would be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”!

Isaiah 53:1-6

1 Who has believed our message?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

And like a root out of parched ground;

He has no stately form or majesty

That we should look upon Him,

Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

3 He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

And our sorrows He carried;

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

And by His scourging we are healed.

6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all