November 5

a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, — Eccl 3:4 BSB

Does a person weep only once in their life? No, the time for weeping often runs throughout a Christian’s entire journey. Mourning seems to walk alongside our existence in this frail body, for “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” So just as there is “a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up,” there is also “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” throughout the life of a believer. God’s people will experience many seasons of weeping—they will often find themselves sighing over their own sinful hearts, mourning their backslidings from God, and weeping over broken dreams and failed hopes. They will grieve over how they have saddened the Holy Spirit through disobedience and worldliness, feeling genuine sorrow at the feet of a dying Savior. In these moments, they are, in some small way, following the path of Jesus, the “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.”

They will weep for those friends who once seemed so promising in their faith but have since fallen away. They will cry in the face of slander and false accusations from others who claim to be followers of Christ. They will mourn the low spiritual state of the Church, feeling the weight of how few truly serve the Lord with reverence and godly fear.

But above all, they will weep over the idols in their own hearts—the way they’ve mistreated the God they long to love, the way they’ve turned away from the Savior who surrounds them with love and mercy, and the way they’ve neglected the teachings of the Holy Spirit.

For God’s children, there will be many moments of weeping. And if there’s any state of mind that is to be deeply desired, it is to be found weeping at Jesus’ feet. We have two beautiful examples of Jesus revealing Himself to those who were weeping: one is the woman who was a sinner, who stood behind Him and washed His feet with her tears; the other is Mary Magdalene, who stood outside His tomb weeping.

How different is the weeping of a repentant soul from the hardened, proud self-righteousness of others! How different are the broken-hearted tears of God’s children from the shallow, worldly attitudes of those who simply wear the label of Christian! How different is the mourning of a saint over their sins from the careless actions of someone who excuses everything they do, treating sin lightly and never feeling the pain of a guilty conscience! “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”