Big Boys Don’t Cry

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You know the saying, “Big Boys Don’t Cry.” Well, America has a new Speaker who is not averse to weeping. Does that mean weeping by men is now in vogue? Hardly! . . . if you believe the many talking heads currently on television. The late night talk show comedians are yucking it up. The news media, liberal and conservative, can’t keep themselves from snickering comments, showing the same examples repeatedly while giving the impression that every time Speaker Boehner opens his mouth, he weeps. Quite a contrast from many of the same people now cynical who at other times have talked about how unfortunate it is that men in general are out of touch with their emotions; they are not “man enough to cry when the occasion calls for it. Viewers got a good laugh at the scene in “Sleepless in Seattle, where the main character played by Tom Hanks, Sam, is sitting at his kitchen table while his sister, Suzy, retells the general story-line of the classic movie, “An Affair to Remember, to him and her husband, Greg. She gets all teary eyed as she describes the climactic scene. Sam and Greg and even Jonah stare at her while she weeps, rolling their eyes. Sam and Greg then begin to mimic her crying as they describe the movie “The Dirty Dozen boo-hooing loudly about scenes that are not in the least bit tear-jerkers. I have to admit I did get tears in my eyes from the climactic scene in “An Affair to Remember, while I burst out laughing at the scene in “Sleepless in Seattle.
In Ecclesiastes we read that there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh, and they are not always the same for all people at all times. There is weeping by men and women in the Bible in times of grief and mourning, tears over their sin and salvation, crying over justice and punishment being meted out; there are also tears of happiness when the soul is overwhelmed with joy. It is not just imperfect and sinful men who cry; it is the perfect man who cries, the man of righteous strength and of pure character, who weeps over Jerusalem, for his friends at the grave of Lazarus, and while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion. Crying shows man’s humanity and the nature of the soul. It displays an aspect of the image of God in which we are created. It speaks of humility and a sense of sin; of depravity and genuine repentance. It expresses an overwhelming sense of awe at the glory and majesty of God and His Son as marveled at in their works and their creation. The tearful response to glory recognized in victories won, awards presented, patriotism felt, music stirring the heart, the first sight of your baby, hearing your spouse is out of danger, at the wedding of your child, and on and on; tears reveal hearts of flesh, not stone; tender, moldable; hearts that will melt before the Lord and His righteousness; hearts of both women AND men.
Those who snicker at weeping, as they do toward Speaker Boehner, are insecure in who they are. They do not feel deeply about the truly important things of life. In most cases those things that move them to passion elicits anger, cynicism or hardness rather than tears. They view tears as a tool of manipulation in some cases and as a sign of weakness in others. The slaughter of infants or the heinous way it is performed does not bring the slightest bit of wetness to their eyes. They do not cry over the soldiers who die in battle, the children who are trafficked in sex, the depravity of the culture. They do not understand the cry of Christ as he looked over Jerusalem weeping for the people who were living and dying in ignorance and hardness of heart. They do not comprehend the cries and tears of a righteous man who prays passionately to His Father in heaven: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard for His reverent submission. (Hebrews 5:7)
One day tears will pour out of the eyes of men and women with hard hearts, but like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), they will not change God’s heart one iota when they come too late for repentance. Weeping then will not suffice, if they have not come for the right reasons when the opportunity was once there; when “every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! (Rev. 1:7)
If your heart is right, there is plenty of reason to cry. We need to do a whole lot more of it![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]