Words cannot express our grief; words require us to be rational and reasoned. Grief is not thought or reason, it is emotion. Grief can be expressed in words but the words describe the feeling and the feeling is almost always greater than the meaning the words convey. Sometimes we use only our own words; at other times we use the words of others to help express what we feel. And yet there are times when words simply fail. At those times we use words, ours or others but weeping best expresses our grief.

At the present moment we are in a time of darkness…a painful night. Violence and pain surround us; hateful images and sounds spill over into our lives. We are grieving. To be sure we are grieving the loss of life at Virginia Tech but sadly, Virginia Tech is the latest occasion for grief. The truth is we are grieving because our world is severely broken.

Too many in our world are so broken emotionally and relationally that the task of healing seems too overwhelming. Yet, we know we must do something; something for ourselves; something for our world.

Where do we start?

The temptation is to start with anger, to insist that someone pay for the pain caused to us but I think the better, healthier place to start is weeping. Weeping acknowledges our sorrow, our grief that our world, our community and our relationships are deeply damaged. Weeping means we acknowledge the pain we experience, letting that pain touch us. Weeping means we long for the passing of pain and sorrow caused by violence and hatred and look with longing for the joy of a new day.  

Weeping is not morbid; weeping will make us real. Weeping does not mean we do not have faith. It means instead that we believe the world can be better than it is and we weep because destructive forces hinder the coming of a better world. We weep because we know God desires the universe to sing with joy.

Weeping isn't all we need to do but it is a good place to start.