Tales of the Restoration: The Gift of Tears (part II) or Go Ahead, Cry If You Want To!

The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.  ~John Vance Cheney



For the past year, I have been learning a lot about a time of restoration from the Biblical story of Nehemiah. Today I am thinking about the role of crying, and mourning in the process of restoration.

The first thing Nehemiah did when he heard about the shameful state of his homeland was burst into tears. I don't mean he got a little misty for a moment. He "wept and mourned for days". Nehemiah was an important government official and male, but he apparently felt no shame over the depth of his emotion.


As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:4 

I decided to do a little research into tears. It turns out that the standard advice, "don't cry", may be very bad advice.

Animals don't shed tears. So why did God create tears in humans?

Dr. William Frey, a "tear expert",  found that emotional tears contain a mood-elevating and pain reducing endorphin, a stress hormone, protein carrying the molecular code for emotions throughout the body, and a mineral involved with our moods. In contrast, irritant tears, (like those produced when dicing onions) were 98 percent water. Apparently, when we "cry it out", we are physically shedding the stress and emotion. Maybe that is one reason the crying makes us feel better. (information from http://smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=53397&eddate=01/12/2006)

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.  ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, 1860