JOB TORE HIS robe and shaved his head…

 

These were expressions of deep sorrow in his ancient culture.  Reeling under the impact of these great losses, Job was too crushed in heart to put up any false front of cheerful courage.  He wept openly with boundless grief.

 

Emotionally, he was allowing the natural grief process to occur.  Some people think that to be spiritual, they cannot cry or let anyone else see their crushed heart.  Some believe it is unspiritual to let their broken spirit show.

 

Not so.  It is unhealthy to not allow the grief process to occur.  If all that emotion remains pent up inside, we become like a teakettle on a stove — ready to explode!  It is emotionally healthy and therapeutic for our souls to cry.  Didn’t Jesus weep over the death of Lazarus?

 

One author addressed this very point:  “I am disappointed that someone, somewhere, many years ago, introduced the ridiculous idea that if you know the Lord, you don’t grieve.  That even if you lose something or someone significant, you shouldn’t weep.  With my whole heart, I disagree!  Granted, we don’t grieve “as those who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).  But, no tears?  No grief?  I find that unthinkable.  Since when does becoming a Christian make a person less than human. . . .or more than human?”  Steven J. Lawson, “The Invisible War,” When All Hell Breaks Loose, 41

 

“Jesus wept.”  John 11:35

 

Mike Benson