I like to think that I am a very masculine man in a lot of different ways. What I see when I think of a true man is strong, burly, hardcore, never shows his emotions, oh whoops thats a false statement but for most men this is the reality that we have been brought up into. This blog is a focus on what we should see when we feel our tears start to fall and reasons we should never hold those tears back!
Jesus is the most manly a man can possibly become! There is story upon story in the Bible that tells us how out of compassion Jesus performed miracles. the story that comes to my mind is how Jesus reached out to the the family that was wrecked for Jesus was late and there child had died! He has compassion towards the family and the loss they have experienced. God works in amazing ways throughout compassion.
I have an awesome story of my own I am feeling lead to share with you all about how God has shown me the truth about tears. I have lived and very gifted life I grew up learning from older men, some had a soft side ( aka my dad ) others that I worked for had a mindset of get the job done no matter what it takes, and if you dare show your emotion there will be a lot of criticism and jokes on the true hurt inside. I choose to bottle up a lot of my tears and emotion so that I could fit in and not draw the attention to me as the weak one. I went through a lot of struggle internally with bottling up my emotions and tears. The thing is that when we find ourself bottling up anything its usually going to spoil and become sour. This is exactly what had happened in my life I held in all my emotion and it was released into my days little by little in a very sour type of way.
God has broken me many times but I like to think of it as just bending me, to get me to see the right path I am supposed to be on and strengthen my faith. As I was very frustrated and filled with a ton of anger I sought out what God wanted from me and how I am to be a kingdom man if all I have for troubled situations is this bottled up emotion. I spent that evening praying very very direct( God give me tears for I am not able to hold in this emotion any longer). A little rewind I was not much of a tear type of person I may have let tears fall 4-5 times as a young adult all in my own alone space. I prayed that evening after work for 4 hours straight! asking for the same thing, lifting up to God that I cannot hold in my emotion any longer and I need a channel to release the bottled up!
One week had passed I found myself on the beach after work in Hawaii doing what I normally did( reading, journaling and reflective prayer. the book I was reading was a book on leadership pain and the moment I started reading about a story with a failed business and a broken family I immediately started to let the tears fall from my eyes to be planted In the ground for Gods safe keeping. The amount of joy that flowed from my heart and the perfect timing of God has stuck with me! To this day and each and every time I let my tears flow I am able to thank God for the ability and the merciful love he shows me no matter what I am struggling with or going through internally.
Tears are liquid words to our heavenly Father. I was listening to a podcast and the pastor was talking about how tears are all types of emotion and cannot be picked out by there looks. Tears have power when they become seed and compassion. There is a big difference between tears of wounds and tears of brokenness. (Isaiah 53)
Give every tear to the lord no matter if they are of pain,helplesness,hope,grace,love or just tears of frustration or anger let the Lord of all the universe have them regardless of whats going on God has designed us to use this bottle up emotion through tears. I challenge each of you to not bottle up your tears and allow God to put value into them as they hit the ground as seed for others to see or for inspiration for others to open up!
Tears are valuable to God and when we hold them in we may be missing what God is going to do with them. (weeping lasts a night time but joy comes in the morning) love you all and hope this speaks to your heart as it has mine.
