They are shed for many different reasons.  I've had a lot of them lately.  Tears of joy.  Tears of sorrow.  Tears of laughter.  Tears of grief.  Tears for others.  Tears for myself.  I've seen a lot of tears lately too.  It strikes me that in our text for May 16 there are many tears.  Most notably, "Jesus wept."  Tears are leaking emotions.  (Okay, sometimes they're because of allergies...)  Generally, tears are accompanied by deep emotion.  The kind that feels like we have an elephant on our chest or at least a hippo.  It's impossible to just flip a switch and have our tears shut off.  Some days it seems like the whole day is a "leaker."  Some despise tears.  "Real men don't cry."  But Jesus was the most real man of all time and He was overcome with emotion and wept.  There is a very interesting text in Psalm 56:8, Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?  If God is keeping a record of every tear there are some people that must have pretty thick books!  And what about that bottle?  Don't you wonder what conversation the Lord will have with you someday about your contribution to the bottle?  You don't know how many tears you have shed...He does and He remembers even the ones no one else ever sees. 

My sermon title this week is "Stress Test".  It is just like the Lord to move us from the comfortable to the dangerous only to reveal that with Him there really is no "dangerous."  As you read from John 10:40 to John 11:7 you'll see this situation unfolding.  Of course Jesus could have healed Lazarus from 20 miles away.  Of course Jesus could have gone by Himself.  But, since the purpose of all this was to glorify God, the best place to see the glory of God was in the place they didn't want to go...Bethany.  Most of you that read this have been through some stress tests...maybe you are in one right now.  How can we pray for you?  What have you learned?