“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)

The shortest and perhaps one of the saddest verses in the bible.  The occasion was the death of a dear friend, beloved brother of Mary and Martha.  Weeping for a friend – the human face of the Master – like us – grieving when death deals its horrific blow.  In this case, though, Jesus knew He would raise Lazarus from death shortly.  So why did He weep?  Perhaps He was touched with Mary and Martha’s grief.  Perhaps He was sad that His friend had to suffer through the pain of the death process.  Perhaps He knew how happy Lazarus was, and He didn’t want to call him back to earth, far and away from Paradise.

Whatever the reason, Jesus was so moved that He mourned, deeply, for awhile.  Even Jesus, with the universe at His beck and call suffered a period of deep, unfathomable grief.  Grief of that magnitude cannot be hurried, cannot be wished away, can only be lived through.  When grief becomes our lot, our friends, because they love us, want us to be whole again – like we were.  They honestly think they know what is best for us, and sometimes it’s not.  They want us back like we were before, and not only that, they want us back as soon as possible.  What is difficult for those who haven’t taken residence on “Grief Mountain,” is that they have a hard time understanding that what we were before has forever changed.  We do not have it in our power to return to what we were.  We are different people, and eventually stronger for the Mountain we have ascended, but different.  This difference is the by-product of an event we would never have chosen for ourselves, or even an enemy.  We will be back, but not exactly the same, and it will take time, more time than some are prepared to invest is us.  And that’s ok; we understand and love them anyway.

Please, and I hope you do, enjoy a poem I recently wrote that considers the foregoing thoughts.

THE JOURNEY

Good friend,

Please do not interrupt my flight,

For sometimes I alight

On leaves of loneliness,

Sometimes, on twigs of tears.

And please,

Do not try to catch my wings

As I try to pass,

For somewhere,

In the great Sometime,

I will alight again,

In a sweeter place, on better flowers.

And then I will be again, alright,

If you, dear friend,

Do not interrupt my flight.

Photo by LiebeDich  http://www.flickr.com/people/liebedich/ used under Creative Commons agreement

Practical Christian wisdom is a combination of Spiritual will and Biblical skill. As Christians we must continue to study the scriptures and let the spirit of God take control of our lives. Choosing a life filled with the Spirit instead emptied by sets of rules

At work I am often urged to write policy letters to cover every possible contingency of human behavior.  These policy letters are reviewed by lawyers to ensure every lawsuit is avoided, operations officers look for the impetuous for action, the employees immediately look for a loop hole which, when found, prompts more policy letters.  ENOUGH! You can’t write a standard operating procedure for common sense.

A recent presentation by Barry Swartz at the TED conference struck a cord within me.  In it, Dr. Swartz describes practical wisdom as defined by Aristotle as the “combination of moral will and moral skill.”