No more tears
posted: August 20, 2008 | category: faith, homelessness
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The story of a man dying homeless and alone is tragic and sad. It’s the kind of thing that might make you want to cry. But after I’d been involved in urban ministry for a while, I learned that I couldn’t cry about every thing, because I’d never stop. I’d just cry all the time, every day. Because there’s something tragic and sad every day, usually more than one thing. So I’ve learned to save it up, and when that last thing comes that just bursts the dam, then I cry about all of it at once, and I weep and I mourn, and I get it out, and then I don’t cry again for a long, long time.
Like the day the kid that shot the cop in Glenwood died in that jail cell in West Virginia. The dam burst that day. I thought I’d drown in it. I cried for so many people. So many faces. So much pain. It started about that kid’s tragic life, but it ended up being about an ocean of tragedy all around me.
One of these days, I’ll cry for the homeless men who’ve died this summer. But I long for the day when there will be no more tears…
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain…” — Revelation 21:4
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