This whole trip has been a whirlwind for me in different ways each month. Exhausting in multiple ways and God has been redeeming my deep rooted ideas of crying. He has had me break multiple times over different situations. In the beginning I would be sitting in front of my teammates repeating words like “I’m sorry, or I hate this, I hate this” because I always felt weak, when in fact I was not. But by showing those feelings I was being brave or courageous. It has taken me four months to be ok with tears coming to my eyes, to not apologizing for the messy, ugly tears I was shedding.
I was in a self preservation mode while in this village, there was one day of bliss before it all started to unravel. Just trying to keep up normalcy, God giving us the strength to move through each day, the capability to love others through our own processing and grief. Each of us moving through the different stages of grief, when we finally were moved out of the situation I did not even hit my break down until a full 28 hours after we had made it to our hotel. I broke hard, tears over the situation, for the family when they find out the extent of why this even happened, and would we ever get to see those exquisite faces here on this earth again?
Worthy are Your tears.
God gave us emotions to use.
The tears of laughter, hope, understanding, love, frustration, and even anger. They are worthy because they are part of Your Story. The story that makes you a unique child of God. A story that gives hope to someone else, those tears help show love, mercy, and strength. Strength because we were created to care, we were created for relationship and to help one another through the trails of life. Worthy because none of us were meant to do this alone. Immanuel, God with us.
Do not misunderstand me, I realize that not everyone is a crier, and every little thing should put you to tears, but what I am trying to say is that there are strength is those tears when you do experience them.
So before you part take a moment and look at the title for me right now, and One more and take a second think about what that phrase means to you. Ask God to keep that in mind next time you feel the tears coming or see a friend crying. Tears are Worthy, Justified, and Strength.
Ask God how you can aid that person. Sometimes just sitting and letting them cry is all they need.
