No Tears

 There are times when people live in sorrow but they have no tears. They feel like weeping but the tear ducts are dry. This happens when people suppress their emotions and are numb. Sometimes people have to hold their emotions down to cope with life day to day. The pain of the past is too paralyzing. So they choke back their emotions to survive another day. 

I wonder how people live with wounds that have not healed. How many live with griefs that never subside. How many live with disappointments and depression constantly. I believe churches are filled with such people. Masses live this way who never darken the door of any church. People get so numb to life they don't feel anything emotionally. 

I believe one of the reasons God created tears is for people to get all of that pain, those heavy sorrows, and crippling cares out in liquid form. Tears are a form of releasing internal pain. That is why people weep when someone dies. I certainly did when my grandfather died. It is one of the handful of times I wept uncontrollably. Another was sitting in my garage in Seminole. Our house was vacant. We had already moved to Paradise to start a church. The house had not sold and I needed to get a few things out of it. My three youngest sons all spent the night with friends. Brenda and Taylor stayed in Paradise. Things were not going well with the church plant. I sat in my garage alone that night with the door up and lights off and wept and wept when I thought about all we gave up to chase the dream of starting a church. 

When the emotions are suppressed the pain lingers. When the tears will not form, people carry the heaviness of their heavy laden burdens day in and out. They never really deal with the sadness. It oppresses them continually. 

That is why we must come to Jesus with our burdens. We must cast them all onto Him. [Psalm 55:22]. We were never meant to carry the sorrows of this life daily. In casting those things on Jesus, we might find tears form when we no longer suppress how we really feel. Life can be harsh. People we love die. People we love abusively wound us. People we once trusted can betray us. On top of those things, diseases surround us. Bodies age and wear down. We face financial crisis. Sin knocks at the door ready to pounce on us, but we must master it. [Gen 4:7] 

I have heard people say from time to time that they just needed a good cry. We are told in [Ps 30:5] that weeping may last for a night. It is appropriate in certain seasons to shed tears. Admittedly it not easy for some men who see blabbing and bawling as weakness. Even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. [John 11:35] 

Let me exhort you to let all that pain and feelings you might suppress to bubble up and fill up the tear ducts. Let that mourning well up in deep cascaded falling down your cheeks releasing pint up emotional trauma you may have carried for years. Cast all your anxieties on a great Savior who cares for you. [I Pet 5:7] Let the promise and hope of heaven renew strength to face the battles of the day where our King Jesus will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more crying. [Rev 20:4]