Where Do You Go To Cry?

Sometimes we just need a good cry. At one time or another everyone experiences the pain of betrayal. Who doesn’t understand being overwhelmed with responsibilities? Tragedy strikes. Relief is slow to appear. Questions slowly rise to the surface of our minds — where is God? Why is He taking so long? We just need a good cry, like David. “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God” Psalm 69:1-3.

The tears are especially bitter when we have been caught in sin, the sin we promised we would never commit again. The lust of the flesh has eaten us alive. We have had opportunity to speak out about our God, and we have denied Him once again. We understand the tears shed by Peter. “Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly” Matthew 26:75.

So where do we go to cry?

Some people choose a neighborhood bar where “everyone knows your name.” Others just look for a cry bar. World magazine recently ran an article about a popular spot in Nanjing, China. The bar, sparsely furnished with a sofa and a few tables, has a full supply of tissues. For six dollars an hour you can sit in this “cry bar” and, well — cry. The bar was the brainchild of Luo Jun. So many people had told Jun they needed a good place to cry, but didn’t know where it would be appropriate that he opened the cry bar.

So where do we go when we need a cry? How about church? Some think church would be the last place they would cry, after all, what would people think? We have to grow beyond the idea that mature Christians are the ones who always have it together into the confidence that mature Christians are the ones who always take their problems to God!

Have we forgotten we are to “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” Romans 12:15 KJV? Offering a shoulder to cry on may be one of the best ways we can “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” Galatians 6:2.

We will be blessed when we drop the pretense of having everything together and learn that church can be better than any cry bar.

I’ll feel better after a good cry,

— Bob Clark

10/12/2004