Understanding The Tears

Episode #1 is both the season and program introduction. Episode 1 introduces the book When Tears Run Dry as the story of Job, the Old Testament patriarch whose life was upended by a series of catastrophic personal losses at the hand of Satan.  

Episode 1, Understanding The Tears, provides a brief discussion of tears from a biophysiological perspective, as they relate to the many life-altering losses that ultimately produce tears of brokenness in one's life. Episode 1 begins the discussion of catastrophic personal loss and introduces our central character, Job, with a thumbnail description of what little is known about this great patriarch. The framework for our discussion of Job begins in Chapter 1 of The Book of Job.  

Purchase When Tears Run Dry  https://remnantpublications.com/when-tears-run-dry-r-mark-janacek.html

https://whentearsrundry.org/

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Welcome to When Tears Run Dry, the podcast. I'm Mark Janik, your host and author of the recently released book When Tears Run Dry. Well, this is our season opener, and we're delighted to have you join us on our journey to healing, recovery, and restoration. This is episode one in our brand new podcast series, and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to join us in our discussions. We'll be drawing much of our discussion material from our recent book release, When Tears Run Dry. So as you join us every week, it would be helpful to have your own copy of the book, as we will certainly be referring to sections and passages as we move through the podcast series. Well, you can get a copy of When Tears Run Dry directly from our publisher, Remnant Publications, and you can do that through our website when tearsrundry.org. But also you can uh get electronic versions through Amazon and Bard's Unnoble. They carry the Kindle and Nook versions respectively for those of you who prefer the convenience of a book on their phone or other electronic devices. Personally, I love the Kindle app on my phone, which was free of charge. And you can purchase When Tears Run Dry Kindle version directly from Amazon. It's just a hair under 10 bucks. Boom, you're done. I also love the experience of the hard copies. So whatever works for you, it's available easy enough. You'll want to get a copy of the book. It'll certainly make it a bit easier to follow along as we work our way through the text. Well, let's get started. When Tears Run Dry is the story of Job. We'll talk more about him in just a moment, but the subtitle of the book is Lessons from Job in Personal Catastrophic Loss, The Path to Healing and Wholeness. And if that sounds like a lot, trust me, this isn't a 30-minute short course. We have lots of ground to cover over the next several weeks. So don't worry, it's going to be one bite at a time. Well, as the title of the book implies, something or some number of things has caused tears in one's life. There's been a loss, indeed, a tragic loss of one sort or another. And the loss has produced heartache, mourning, and grief in one's life, or the life of a friend or family member. If you're dealing personally or you know of someone who is dealing with a major loss, then this program is for you. The loss can be many things. It can be the loss of a job, a career, setback of some kind, uh, the loss of your marriage through separation and divorce, or perhaps a relational fracture with a longtime friend. But for some, perhaps many listening to us, it's the loss of one's own health or that of a close friend or family member experiencing a devastating illness or catastrophic injury. And for still others within the sound of my voice, your loss is the death of a friend, a family member, spouse, someone profoundly important in your life. The pain is deep and it cuts to the depths of your soul. Let's be clear. Tears are natural. They are issued with cries and sometimes even wails of deep, non-remitting grief at the loss, whatever it may be. And the value of the loss, it it cannot be measured. The loss was not something or someone of no account. Emotional tears represent a human investment. An investment was made from parent to child, from friend to friend, from spouse to mate. The investment lost may be from yourself to a lifetime endeavor that for whatever reason has crashed and the pieces are broken and shattered across the foreground of your life. Whatever your loss or the loss of someone you know, there is no better healer than the great physician, our Lord, and our God. It was he who healed Job through the pain and suffered, quite honestly, as few of us will ever know. But on the other side of the suffering is healing, restoration, and wholeness delivered gently by the same hand who knitted you together in your mother's womb. That's Psalm 139, verse 13. And that, my friends, is why we wrote the book. As we talk about the losses, yes, but but also journey through the losses to the healing and restoration God has in mind for you, your friends and loved ones. Well, friends, if you're just joining us, welcome to When Tears Run Dry. This is our new weekly podcast, courtesy of When Tears Run Dry.org. I'm Mark Janik, your host and author of the new book from Remnant Publications, When Tears Run Dry. Well, this is our season opener, the first episode in what we hope, Lord willing, will be a blessing to all of you, and especially to our friends who are dealing with loss in whatever corner of life. As you study with us in the series, you'll want to have two very important study resources. The first would be access to a Bible, and the second would be hard copy or electronic copy of When Tears Run Dry on Kindle or Nick or Nook. Um, those are the electronic versions that are available to you. And the Bible and When Tears Run Dry are easily available both online. Uh most Bible apps offer multiple versions of options, so so that shouldn't be a problem. Well, we're just getting started in our podcast series based on our new book, When Tears Run Dry. So let's continue. My good friend, pastor, and frankly, one of the most knowledgeable students of Scripture and all things theological. He is soon to be known as Dr. Julian Philippov. He often says, context is king when he's preaching or presenting God's word. He reminds us often of the importance of understanding the context, that is, the background of a particular passage as we study. Without context, it's not only possible, but it's likely that the reader or the listener will miss the richness of full understanding. But I like to say it this way: if context is king, then Jesus is the context. By context is king, it's not just a guide for reading and studying the scriptures, though it is. I personally believe it's a great nugget of wisdom for all of us in many areas of life. So with that in mind, we want to provide some context for the book of Job so that as we examine Job's story in the scripture and in our book, When Tears Run Dry, we have a meaningful framework to help us understand it better. When Tears Run Dry, as we said earlier, is based on the story of Job, the Old Testament book and the Bible that bears his name. Job was the Old Testament patriarch whom God affectionately called my servant. That was a term of both endearment and honor, and we'll see that as we go through our study together. So the first question: who was Job? As we describe in the book, it's likely that he was a Gentile of Arabic extraction. But frankly, we know relatively little about Job before the events in the book that bears his name. So let's talk about the name of Job. The name Job has two possible meanings. If derived from the Hebrew word for persecution, it means persecuted one. But it's more likely, however, that the name comes from an Arabic word meaning to come back or repent. Job might well be defined as the repentant one, but certainly both meanings apply to the book of Job. But the next question is: who wrote the story of Job? As we think about context, that's certainly an important question. And the book of Job doesn't really give us any direct answer to that question as to who wrote the book. And there are frankly no hints within the text of the book of Job as to the author's identity. But the nominations are plentiful. Job himself, a young man by the name of Elihu, we're going to run into his name later in the book of Job. But other nominees include Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, and Ezra. So lots of notable candidates, and they're all great nominees. But the rabbinic traditions are certainly inconsistent. But some of the best and most scholarly thinking in the Talmudic tradition suggests that Moses wrote the book of Job. And that would make sense as Job was in the land of Uz, which is adjacent to Midian, where Moses spent 40 years after his exile from Egypt. Scholars believe that Moses likely obtained a copy of the dialogue left either by Job himself or young Elihu. I'm certainly comfortable with this framework to endorse Moses as the most likely author of the book of Job. And frankly, most of the best scholars agree, as do most Bible translators. So as we go through the book when tears run dry, it's helpful to note that we wrote it to optimize what I call reader relevance. And as you work through the book, you'll see that we very subtly use what I call the SPR model. That is, as we endeavor to provide the reader with an understanding of the spiritual, practical, and relational elements of this story of Job to help us in our journey to healing, wholeness, and restoration from our own losses. So as we go in this series, uh we're going to discover some great lessons that Job learned from his experience that we can apply really to our own journey with catastrophic personal loss. We will also uh mine out a bit later some of the great principles of healing, wholeness, and restoration from this story of Job. So lots of great learning and healing to come, and we're excited to bring it to you starting today and in the weeks ahead. We'll continue our study in just a moment, but we want to offer you the opportunity to be part of what we're doing here at when tearsrundry.org. You can sign up to be a member, indeed a charter member of when tearsrundry.org. And as a thank you for being part of when tearsrundry.org and our family, you will have the access to special members-only sections of when tearsrundry.org with special features and additional help for your journey to healing, wholeness, and restoration. Good stuff waiting for you on our website, When Tears Rundry.org. Before we get started, we wanted to let you know that the uh When Tears Run Dry podcast is available across most of the platforms you're familiar with. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and of course, of course, our uh our flagship, The River 104.9 FM. And certainly last but not least, when tearsrundry.org. So check us out on our media page. We'll drop new episodes, I believe, every Thursday at 10 o'clock. So be sure to make a note of that on your schedule. Well, let's continue with our study. In chapter one, we introduce the reader to our subject matter expert, Job, with a brief peek at his trials, which we're going to examine certainly in more detail later in the book. However, we also frame our introduction with the understanding that whatever you as the reader have suffered from catastrophic personal loss, you might very likely find a parallel of some kind in the story of Job. The story of Job is frankly a deeply personal account of horrific human suffering, perpetrated, I might add, by the evil one, but endured by this man Job, who was described from the lips of God as blameless and upright. That's Job chapter 1, verse 1. I think it's important to underscore that when tears run dry is not some kind of theoretical, academic, abstract or self-help book for the casual Christian reader. As we discuss the subject of catastrophic loss, the pain, the suffering, and the grief and all that goes with it are part of this desperately human experience. In this very human experience, we are not enduring it alone. Indeed, God goes before us, he walks with us, and in Christ He resides in us, and of course, I'm sure many of you can attest to the fact that there are times He carries us even through the valley of the shadow of death, Psalm 24, 3, uh 23, 4. God said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And that's Hebrews 13, 5, quoting Deuteronomy 31, 6. That promise is kept 100% as He lives in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As the author, I w I wanted to ensure that you, as the reader, could have confidence uh in my credentials for authorship on this important subject. And so with that in mind, I share a bit of my own personal experience with catastrophic personal loss to the extent it may be helpful to the reader. Recently, someone asked me how long it took to write the book. I paused for a moment and I said, Well, the first chapter took me 40 years or so, but the rest of the book kept me busy for about two years as I had time to write it. Well, in chapter one of the book, I describe some of the personal trials I've contended with. Uh, there were business successes and losses, uh, a failed marriage, and most tragically the loss of my oldest son from an accidental fentanyl overdose. He was just 33 at the time and just five days short of his 34th birthday. And that took place just seven weeks after I buried my mother, having lost my father barely one year before. There were certainly other devastating personal losses. In little more than a year, I lost two uncles, two aunts, and a cousin during all of that. Very difficult to be sure. Sometimes the losses end with a funeral and burial, but sometimes the losses continue. In my case, it's the estrangement of my three other children who have been largely silent for many years. But the book, When Tears Run Dry, it's it's not about me, the author. It's about the story of Job. It's about his traverse through immense pain, suffering, and enormous personal loss. And more importantly, it's about the great messages that God has for us and for our blessing and understanding. We'll uncover these great messages together in the coming weeks, some of which you will no doubt find surprising. And we hope you'll stay with us as we travel this journey together. Well, the title of this introductory episode is Understanding the Tears. So I thought it'd be helpful to dive into that subject to help us understand a tiny bit of the immense love God poured into us with something as apparently simple as tears. Well, from a purely human physiological perspective, there are in fact three different types of tears, and they are as follows. The first is those are basal tears. Those are the constant, ever-present tears. Your eyes constantly produce small amounts of basal tears to keep the corneas lubricated and nourished and clear of debris. And then there's also reflex tears. These are the ones triggered by irritants when your eye encounters dust or smoke or a chopped onion as you're making dinner. And the sensory nerves, they they trigger a gland to flood the eye with a heavy flow of tears and flush out the irritant. It's remarkable. And then finally, we have emotional tears. Okay. These are the tears sparked by feelings, strong emotions like sadness or joy or extreme stress. And they prompt the brain to signal the tear glands. These tears are chemically different and contain higher concentrations of proteins and stress hormones. But your brain evaluates the emotional intensity that's taking place. When an experience crosses a certain threshold, the brain's emotional center activates the nervous system, and that triggers the glands to produce tears, which not only provide physical relief, but they also act as a biological reset to help calm your body down. And this all takes place in a few rapid steps. And what the brain does, it evaluates the intensity and the significance of what you're feeling. It reacts certainly to both negative feelings like grief and sadness and frustration and overwhelming positive ones as well, like joy and relief. And then it relays the message. And when the feelings become too intense, the brain activates the nervous system to trigger your tear ducts. And then we have the release of stress. Once the signal reaches the glands, tears are produced. Emotional tears carry very specific stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, as well as natural painkillers. It's quite remarkable, but this was all designed and created by our Heavenly Father. Scientists note that the emotional tears differ chemically from the tears produced when you're chopping onions. They are the body's way of returning to an emotional baseline, so to speak. By releasing the stress chemicals, the crying activates the nervous system. We refer to it oftentimes as the rest and digest system. And it slows your heart rate, deepening your breathing and bringing a sense of calm. It's amazing. Well, friends, my prayer is. Is that this very short overview of biophysiology of the tears, no pun intended, will open your eyes to the marvelous and intricate process God devised, allowing us to cry and chemically emit our emotions, so to speak. It's fascinating. So as we circle back to the title of the book, I'm sure some of you have, or through your own experiences, cried out to God in lamentation, in desperation, asking the question, why? Why this? Why now? Why did this happen to me? And the tears gush forth from the tidal waves of emotions associated with catastrophic personal loss. But at some point, at some point, the tears stop. Not because the loss has gone away, but because the sheer weight and duration of the experience has caused a numbness to overtake the tears, and the tears have run dry. That doesn't mean that the tears won't return, but perhaps not as they once did. Indeed, the soul becomes numb. Grief is often the source of tears. Grief often surges in waves with no real voluntary control mechanism to stem the tide of the emotions that are just raw with pain. The soul agonizes. The eyes would certainly willingly shed the tears of grief, but behold, sometimes the tears do not come. We sometimes wonder what's what's happening to us. You say, Lord, I I used to cry when I felt this way, and then you fill in the blank with whatever that is, but the tears don't come. My friend, we've all been there. You're not doing anything wrong. It's just the way grief and all of the emotions associated with it attend the soul. David reminds us that God cares for our tears. You number my wanderings, I put my tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book? The story of Job is uh is a tale of of triumph over tragedy, of new life over death, and indeed salvation from human suffering. Most of us, friends, will certainly never suffer as Job did, but we take comfort in knowing that God, the God who spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and ultimately restored him is the same yesterday, today, and forever, according to Hebrews 13, 8. And God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. That's Psalm 46.1. As we say in the book, we do not look for tragedy and loss. Indeed, none of us want the tears of grief, mourning, and profound loss, but we can look to God, the only one who has the power to transform tragedy into something beyond our understanding. So if we cast our tear-filled eyes heavenward and humble ourselves before Him, He takes the dust of our failures and the ashes of our losses to create new life within us. In the weeks ahead, we'll learn from Job how to best suffer, survive, and heal from catastrophic personal loss. And like Job, we can look to our Redeemer as we walk the path to the wholeness found only in Christ. So for those of you who are now or have struggled with recovery from some kind of catastrophic personal loss, we want to encourage you that although the road ahead may have many unknowns to navigate and challenges to decipher, and the world may look dark in the present hour, there is hope for you. Indeed, God has a plan for your healing and restoration. And for some of you, it may include a brand new relationship with Christ. There could never be a better friend than Jesus. I learned from my own experiences with great loss many years ago when it became abundantly clear to me that irrespective of anything else, Jesus is my one and my only friend. We're not throwing rocks at our friends here on earth, but earthly friends will sometimes fail or disappoint. Even spouses, children are just like us. They're all subject to human failure, but Jesus never fails. In our chapter summary in Tears Run Dry, we we put it like this The path to healing and wholeness is not a series of straight-line steps from point A to point B. Indeed, it's often a meandering, nonlinear, and exhausting traverse of progress blended with setbacks. Even as we press forward, from the deep reaches of the soul, we contend with the brutal hardship of the losses, waves of unimaginable pain, and the realization of knowing that apart from God, we are utterly helpless. In all of this, the comfort of sorrows is Emmanuel, God with us. Well, looking ahead, we have some very special guests to help us with our journey on the path to healing and wholeness and restoration. We're looking forward to that, and I hope you are too. In the meantime, we'd love to have you join us on our website, When Tears Run Dry. There's a lot of great online support again at When Tearsrundry.org. One of my favorites is the notes and quotes page. There's excellent passages from the book to encourage you, and I'd like to extend a special invitation to all of you. If you appreciate our podcast, When Tears Run Dry, we'd love to hear from you and hope you accept our invitation to become a member of When Tears Run Dry.org. We're so glad you could join us today as we launch the first season of When Tears Run Dry, the podcast. And we hope you'll join us again next week at this same time on this same platform. Well, friends, you may feel unsteady, but we want to leave you with these encouraging words. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen.