Tears of Joy and Sorrow

When is the last time you cried? I bet we could do a case study on how many people read that question and immediately moved on. I’ve been pondering tears this week. As a pastor, it’s a precious perk of the job to witness tears for various reasons and in various seasons. This week, God brought tears to my own eyes more than once. He also allowed me to sit with people who were themselves moved to tears.

Every time those little floodgates open (in your child, in yourself, or in the person sitting across from you) do your best to be presently aware of God in that moment. And maybe what he's doing.

Eugene Peterson writes: “It’s an odd thing. Jesus wept. Job wept. David wept. Jeremiah wept. They did it openly. Their weeping became a matter of public record. Their weeping sanctioned by inclusion in our Holy Scriptures, a continuing and reliable witness that weeping has an honored place in the life of faith.”

Sometimes we cry in pain. Other times we cry in joy. And yes, on rare occasions, we cry without even knowing why. Aren’t tears an incredible crossroads? The physical outpouring of saltwater from our eyes mixed with an immaterial, heart-deep surge of emotion.

You may be in the “I never cry” camp or the “I cry almost every day” camp. Either way, when the tears do come, consider it a sweet invitation to pause and ask why. What is going on in me, in the person I’m sitting with, or in the one I see across the room?

Don’t rush past your tears or hurry the end of tears in others. Resist the urge to explain them away with a trite platitude. It’s a holy moment; one meant to be cherished, considered, and grounded in David’s words about the God who sees us from Psalm 56:8: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”

As believers in Jesus, we know our tears have an expiration date. They exist only for this side of eternity. Listen to John’s written record of God’s revelation in Revelation 21: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”