Personally, I have never been a stranger to tears. I think it’s a characteristic I inherited from my mother, who had the facility of crying at the drop of a hat. Why react to something with a nod, or a shrug of the shoulders, when you can shed real, hot tears? As I got on in life, and experienced the ugliness of the world, I reacted increasingly, instinctively perhaps, by crying. It became a predictable and embarrassing M.O. which I couldn’t shake.
My conversion to Christ at the age of 29 seemed to make matters worse. I cried even more easily than before… over anything and everything it seemed. Called upon to preach in churches around the world, and often speak to groups of people, including on film sets, I often struggled to get the words out because I was too busy choking back the tears. Many times, I have prayed—usually to no avail—for God to keep me from crying before addressing a group of people.
I don’t make that prayer so often today. I’ve made peace with the tears. If they flow unbidden, I tend to let them go.
At the same time, I don’t think God ever intended for our tears to last long. “He doesn’t willingly afflict the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33). He speaks comfort to his people, too. And the tears we shed here on earth must be special to him; they must have meaning; else why would he store them up? I wonder... Do they age over time like a good wine? Are they being held back for that future time when the Bible tells us we will experience God wiping tears from our eyes as a new day dawns and the old order of things passes away (Revelation 21:4)?
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