Jesus Wept.

Over the last quarter century, my experience has taught me many things. One of the lessons most prominent in my recent life is best described by the promise given me through my stake president which I paraphrase here: "All things will work together for the benefit of the faithful." I have recently really started to notice that this is a promise which will always be upheld. It is a law. Also, my understanding of what it means to be "benefited" has been increased at the same time.

As an example, here is a quotation I received:

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate now knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares." - Samuel Paterson

This is something I really needed to hear right at the very moment I received it. From it, I learned many lessons. One was that even if we do need to change something in our lives, it does not mean we need to change everything. For me, that means that I was not entirely in error as a teenager. It taught me something that many of us need to learn: to just listen and be with a person and not worry about trying to be a problem solver or give advice all of the time.

Sometimes a cure is in order - sometimes we are to do more than just listen. However, we will know when that time is and then we can act. I am reminded of a scripture:

"Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping...he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept." (John 11:32-35)

Here we see Christ, the great physician of all mankind, weeping with Mary as she mourns for the death of her brother, Lazarus. Christ knew that Lazarus was not lost forever for He knew not only that life continues beyond death but that Lazarus would soon be raised from the dead and, after his mortal life again came to an end, Lazarus would experience the resurrection and be forever without death. So why, then, did He weep?

I think Christ wept because He felt the pain of Mary. He wept with Mary. He did not immediately try to cure her sadness or fix that which caused her sorrow. Instead, He remained with Mary and wept with her.

This is a lesson we can all learn a little better. For me, it is something I have struggled with since I left on my mission. I have become one who wants to fix the problem now! If I were in a similar situation as Christ was with Mary (and I am in no way comparing myself to Him who is Endless), I would have immediately ran to where Lazarus lay and brought him back into mortality and presented him before Mary. This is rarely an example of a proper course of action.

May we all seek to be those who weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. Let us all be friends who, when we see a friend in turmoil, sit down with our arm around them and just listen to them if words come. Perhaps we just sit. May love always be our guiding star!