Jump Start # 1360

Psalms 56:8 “You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?”

  I would like to share some personal insights with you about my weekend. It was a time of contrasts, tears and holding hands. It will fit well with our verse for today.

On Saturday, I was honored to conduct a wedding. It was outdoor, picture perfect weather, great crowd, and very beautiful wedding. As the bride was heading toward me, walking with her father, I looked over at the groom and he had tears rolling down his cheeks. It was so sweet. As the bride stood close, I saw that she too, had tears. They held hands. They said their “I Do’s”. They kissed. Those tears turned into beautiful smiles as they were congratulated by family and friends. What a great day that was!

The next day, Sunday, I preached the evening service. We have a member who was in the hospital and not doing very well. He was supposed to have been married the day before, as well. His first wife had passed away. He moved back here to where we are. He connected with the sweetest lady, whose husband had also passed away a while back. They had known each other for years. They would come into church holding hands. So sweet. I was to do that wedding on the same day as the other wedding. They changed plans and asked me to be the best man. What an honor. Two weddings on the same day. But last week he got ill. Then he tanked. Now he was in critical condition. I really didn’t want to go to the hospital on Sunday evening, because I was tired. I tried to talk myself into going the next day, but my conscience wouldn’t let me. I went. He was very, very bad. The family was there. There were many, many tears. A medical decision was made, and soon after that his heart stopped beating. He was gone. His beloved held his hand as his heart stopped. I still have tears as I write this. He was a good man. He was a man of God. This all happened so quickly.

Holding hands and tears. On Saturday it was the beginning of a new journey for a young couple who got married. On Sunday, it was the end of a journey for a soldier of Christ.

There are some important lessons through all of this.

A church family, like a physical family, often has different emotions and experiences at the same time. One family smiles because a daughter is married. One family cries because a dad passed away. This rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep are often not very far apart as I found out last weekend. The tears of joy and the tears of sorrow are both necessary. One is not more important than the other. It’s easy to make one emotion seem of lesser value than the other, but you can’t do that. Both are important. Both are part of life. A family, church or physical, must be there to encourage, support and help through all these emotions. This can be taxing because of the needs, prayers and expressions of love that need to be shared. This is why we must look beyond ourselves. This is why we must be servants of Christ. The drive home late Sunday night, I kept thinking I was so glad that I went to the hospital. Sometimes our hearts and our bodies tell us not today, we’ll serve tomorrow. Our heads know otherwise. Our heads realize that folks need us now.

Our passage tells us that God not only recognizes our tears but that He stores them in a bottle. Saved tears. There are a lot of things that people save. Some have become hoarders or pack rats because they save everything. Many people have a certain night stand drawer, or kitchen drawer, that is just stuffed with stuff. There are newspaper clippings, those funeral home cards we pick when we go to a funeral, rubber bands, paper clips, pencils, rulers, ribbons, thumb tacks and odds and ends that we just know someday we’ll need, if we can remember where we put it by then. I have a jar of coins that I empty my pockets into when I come home at the end of a day. I have in my garage a jar of nails, screws and metal thing-of-a-bob, that I just might need sometime. Some write a journal, detailing their travels, events and feelings on a daily basis. But of all these things, I have never seen a bottle of collected tears. First, they wouldn’t last. Tears evaporate. Second, why would we want to save them. Tears of happiness are one thing, but those sad tears. Tears when we have hurt someone or disappointed them. Tears that came because of sin. It’s hard to see someone cry and that not get to you. One of the first movies that ever made me really cry was “Brian’s Song.” There is a scene in which Chicago Bears running back, Gale Sayers tells the team about the coming death of his dear friend and fellow running back,  Brian Piccolo, and then the music plays. Then the tears flow. So sad. God has saved our tears in a bottle. God remembers. He remembers your hurts, your pains, your failures. Tears from injuries. Tears of sadness. Tears of joy. Tears of remorse. God has been there. You may have felt very alone, but you weren’t. He knows and He cares.

There is a line from the new Avenger movie, “A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be among them.” The value of life isn’t in how long it lasts, but in the difference it makes and how it touches our lives.

This day, you will run into people who are on top of the world. They are excited and things are going very well for them. A new house. A new baby. A new job. A new degree. A new car. Happy, smiling and hopeful. Rejoice with them. Thank the Lord for their blessings.

There will be others also who feel like the bottom has dropped out of their lives. A death and now a funeral. A marriage that is over and now a divorce. A friendship that is toxic and now must end. The sorrow of loss. The guilt of sin. The disastrous feeling of failure. Imagine what the prodigal felt when he first came to his senses. Sitting in the mud with pigs and dreaming of eating hard, dry pods, reality finally comes home to him. Look at himself. Look how low you’ve sunk. The sin of addiction, any addiction, will do that. The misery. The failure. The tears. Those tears that God has placed in a bottle. Those tears that lead to hope. Those tears that make us remember that God hasn’t given up. Those tears that remind us that God is looking for us, even today. Weep with those folks. Pray for those folks. Let them know that God hasn’t given up on them.

Tears and holding hands…the contrasts of life.

Roger