The Value of Tears

I cry a lot these days. Not as much as I did in the first two weeks after Linda graduated to heaven, but I cry much more than I did before she died. It was not always this way, though. As a young man I cried here and there, but I was embarrassed by my tears. One day, when I was a summer camp counselor at TVR Christian Camp, an incident occurred with a group leader that brought quick and embarrassing tears to my eyes. I remember asking the Lord - in fact, I remember the very spot where I made my foolish request - to take away my tears. Oh, how I regretted that prayer for many years, because my prayer was fully answered! Many years later when I began to ask the Lord to allow me to cry again, I realized that it would be a different story the other way around. The tears would not return easily. Of course my hard heart was to blame, not the Lord's unwillingness to answer my prayers.

In fact, we are told that God is near to the brokenhearted - often that is a reference to a brokenness over sin, but God clearly is near to those who are hurting. In a time of deep trouble, David asked the Lord to put his tears in a bottle (Psalm 56:8). David was writing, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Think about tears being bottled - it implies that the one Who is bottling the tears counts every tear as precious and will remember the grief that caused the tears. Time and again in the Old Testament, God was astonished that His people did not turn to Him in a time of trouble. The Lord often brings us into difficult situations to turn our attention toward Him. Do not waste the tears that God gives you!

I do cry more, now, but probably one reason is that I am older. We old men tend to cry more than we did when we were younger. I am certain that there are several reasons for that, including physiological ones. I actually envy young men who are able to cry. Why? Because there is great value in tears! Tears can serve to cleanse heart and soul. Tears tend to focus the mind for some. Tears can salve a troubled spirit. Tears may indicate a great love for something that was lost, and wouldn't we all rather love and lose than to never love? Love is risky like that. If we never cry because we have lost something, chances are that we never gave our hearts away to anyone, and what a tragedy such a self-centered existence turns out to be!

So, if you seldom cry, why not ask God to soften your heart? Women do not usually have to work very hard on this, but a lot of men - young men, especially - need to ask God to open their tear ducts and allow them to cry over something lost, to cry over sin (as Jesus did), to cry out of joy found in special moments with Him or with loved ones, to cry over - well, you finish it. I am so glad that God gave Linda and me a relationship worth tears at the end. May God give you the gift of love and the gift of tears!