Ecc. 7:3-4 Crying is better than laughing. It blotches the face but it scours the heart. 4 Sages invest themselves in hurt and grieving. Fools waste their lives in fun and games.

When your heart is heavy, full of shame, grief, sadness, or conviction and needs to be cleansed, you need to have a good cry.  Wise people devote time and energy into grieving in order to accomplish something… which is to be clean.  Grieving is something to be done on purpose.  When the heavy heart feeling comes up, take the time to deal with it right then.  “Scour” is a rough word.  It means to clean something with forceful scrubbing.  I remember my great-grandma would scrub her pots and pans until they were as shiny as when they were new.  It would take her a long time standing there at the sink scrubbing and scrubbing… but man did her efforts pay off!  Sometimes crying or grieving can feel like that.  It can feel like an SOS pad is going to town on our hearts… but the end result will be so shiny and clean!  There is a time for laughter and fun and games, but not when your life needs to be cleansed.  The bible actually says that laughter is like a medicine, good for the soul.  When we get a wound, don’t we first clean it, then apply medicine?  If we slathered Neosporin all over a dirty cut, yes the medicine would help some, but the dirt is still in the wound.  The wound would eventually heal, but it would heal around the dirt.  Isn’t it better to heal cleanly?  Don’t you want to get all that dirt out?!  Have you ever laughed until you cried?  Try crying until you laugh!

I LOVE to laugh, and do it often.  I HATE to cry, and do it often.  I somehow know though that the tears are essential.  I usually feel so much better after I get it all out in a sob-fest.  It’s amazing to me that we have such built-in tools to navigate through what life brings us.  This is an example of such a simple, practical piece of wisdom built into our humanity.  When I feel the tears coming, I just let them come… they are obviously there for a reason.  I have taken the time on purpose to grieve and feel sad.  Owning those moments, acknowledges them, tells them hello, lets them feel welcome, they stay for a while, sometimes put their feet up, but then they know they’ve outstayed their welcome, and they move on.  I have found it’s better to open the door to those feelings, otherwise they will stay there knocking until they drive me crazy.  And when they do move on, it’s only for a while.  They come visiting again, and again I let them in, and again they move on.  In between their visits though, I am living a full and blessed life with lots of love and laughter. 

Lord thank you for having a purpose for the tears.  Thank you for showing me all the tears are actually doing something, other than making my face blotchy.  Thank you that there is a time for grieving.